RESPECT your Body!!

Something I have been thinking about for a few weeks now:

"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have recieved from God?You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies" -1 Corinthians 6: 19-20

MOST Christians believe it is bad to do drugs, get drunk, smoke, have casual sex, etc because it is not treating the body like a temple of God... but for most, it stops there! I am coming to see respecting the body as a temple of God to mean far more than that. To trully respect the body, we need 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night, regular exersise, and a healthy diet. Many Christians I know, and myself sometimes included, fall very short in this- It is not "fun" or whatever excuse we make for eating that particular item of junk food or whatever it may be... Or it may feel like too much work to respect our bodies. But these excuses offer us no benefit! We are harming the temple of God and hindering ourselves when we do these things are we not? Does not obesity, bad eating, lack of sleep and exersise, among other things seriously harm our bodies in other ways (aside from how drugs etc could harm our bodies?!). I've thought a lot on this and do feel quite guilty! Perhaps we all need to respect our bodiesmore in these ways if we are to trully believe our bodies are a temple of God... and if we choose not to, we can not be near as critical as those on rugs, smoking, having casual sex, drinking excessive alcohol etc... Because in the end the outcome is quite the same... We are all causing EQUAL harm to our bodies... Maybe we should all just take better care of ourselves, not because we should or HAVE to, but because we want to bring glory to God by honouring him with our bodies! :)

RAYE