Disciplines #3

The discipline of self care is to appreciate ourselves the way our God values us. God is in us, when we accept His gracious gift of salvation, and delights in every inch of our being. Honoring self honors God. We need to nurture and protect our body, mind, and soul. How do we do this?

Psalm 139:14 tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
1 Corinthians 3:16 tells us that the Holy Spirit dwells in us and that our body is God's temple.
Mark 12:30-31 and Deuteronomy 10:12 say the same thing....Love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, strength and to love our neighbor as oneself.

In a nutshell we are told here to practice a discipline of taking care of ourselves, not only the physical body, but spiritually and emotionally as well. Yes, we need to eat right, drink plenty of water, and take care of our physical body by putting good things into it, but our emotional state is important as well. We all know the brain controls the body functions.....all of them. So, if our emotional state is out of whack, then the body is as well.

When I was in high school I suffered from panic attacks. This wasn't something I broadcasted to a lot of people. I had a close friend who knew of this, but my other friends and my parents didn't even know. That's how good I got at hiding things. My parents trusted me and cared for me, but I never felt the need to burden them with my problems, so I didn't. I can think back to that time in my life. I didn't know Jesus....I drank alcohol excessively.....I hated the world.....my attitude was so bad, I almost got kicked out of band. Now, I know band is a joke to most people, but I did like being in it. However, my senior year, I got pulled aside as one of the "downers" in the group. I was one of a few who was bringing negativity to everyone else, and the leaders were fed up with it.....so it was either shape up or ship out. The bad attitude I and a few others had was affecting the unity of the whole, and it was spreading like wildfire. What I'm getting at with all of this is by my emotional state being messed up, it affected my body. As a result, I suffered in silence most of the time of these panic attacks and the Jack Daniels didn't help anything either.

Now, it's important to take care of our spiritual health as well. Back in high school I knew nothing of a spiritual health. I didn't care to know about God or even trust Him. I was in a very bad way back then. I wonder now if I had known of Him, if my life would have been better? That's a dumb question....of course it would have. I am so thankful now to know of my Jesus. I do know now that our spiritual health is very important to our well being and is what this discipline is about. Reading, studying, praying, making disciples, knowing our God, going to church, praising Him,spending time with other Christians, and worshiping our God are all ways to stay healthy spiritually.  One day we will all stand before a Holy God and give an account of our life on this earth......what will we have to say for ourselves and the way we took care of what God entrusted us with?