Fixer Upper 4 – Kitchen: A Healthy Place to Start
I truly believe everyone wants to live a healthy life. We want it but are we willing to pay the tough price to get to a healthy life. In our fixer upper we need to spend some time in the kitchen to figure out a healthy life. If you are normal this is a struggle you face every day and sometimes every meal of your day. We need to stop and just look at our physical health for a minute. I say this because if we don’t stop and check our health one day our health will stop and check us.
Plus, we have to stop and consider it from God’s view of our physical lives. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 – 20 says, “You should know that your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who is in you. You have received the Holy Spirit from God. So you do not belong to yourselves, because you were bought by God for a price. So honor God with your bodies.” So if our physical lives are a concern for God, then it should become a concern for us as well. How do we go about honoring God with our bodies? How can we make sure that what He has entrusted us with in our flesh is taken care of and used to honor Him.
Whenever you walk into a kitchen the first thing that will usually jump out at you are the cabinets. The cabinets are where it all starts. If we are going to eat healthy it starts with the cabinets. You can only pull out of a cabinet what you put into the cabinet. The Bible lays this out for us in this verse in Galatians 6:7: Do not be fooled: “You cannot cheat God. People harvest only what they plant.” So eating healthy doesn’t start in the kitchen. It starts at the grocery store with what we put in the cart eventually ends up in our mouth. So if we stop and consider the fact that if we can control what goes in the cart then we will control what goes into our diet we will be hours ahead of chasing the diet game. It is taking the time to think through what we are going to eat in the week ahead that will make the greatest difference in healthy eating.
Whenever I cook dinner, the one essential thing I need is a cutting board. Where I cut up what I’m going to add to the meal and then throw away what you don’t need. In 1 Corinthians 9:27 Paul talks about disciplining his body to make sure he was not caught up in something that was bad for him. He was willing to cut things out of his life to make sure he was good with God. So then we have to stop and ask about what we need to cut out of our lives so we can be right with God and ourselves. Find those things that lead you down the wrong path and make it harder to honor God with your body. Is it something you eat, drink or look at? Only you can answer that question, because it is tailored to each one of us individually. What needs to be cut from your diet and life? Find out what holds you back and cut it out of your life.
Then there is that one drawer that my wife and I argue about from time to time. By time to time I mean every time I open that drawer and have to shake it to get it to open because something is in the way. When I’m looking for something I open that drawer and start looking for what I need, I get frustrated and just slam the drawer and walk away muttering under my breath. She laughs and just shakes her head at my reaction. But, I’ve tried to be healthy enough to know that there comes a point where you want to throw in the towel. We have to remember that stuff gets tough to keep staying on the path and finding our way to health. Galatians 6:9 reminds us what can happen if we don’t quit. “We must not become tired of doing good. We will receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time if we do not give up.” We always need to remember that just the sheer will to keep going makes all the difference in the world. When we just grind out every day it helps us be so far ahead of everyone. Making a commitment to today means we will have a different tomorrow. When we keep working at being healthy the day will come when we look back and know that it all paid off in the end.
I also know this about health: you can either use a crock pot or a microwave to make dinner. A roast cooked in a crock pot is so much better than a microwave roast dinner. If you take the long haul approach to health instead of a quick fix it can make all the difference in your life. We need to realize that what we do in this life will echo into our future. Today’s sacrifice will make tomorrow even greater. It is to have a long look at what is ahead of us that will fuel our desire to be healthy today.
So it really does come down to our daily choices. In my life I have added stuff to the cabinets I should have left out. I have not cut out what I should and that junk drawer just wears me out at times. But, if I’m going to be healthy for a long time then it starts with what I do today. So I will consider my health a partnership with God who made me for so much more than what I can imagine. I will do my best to find God’s plan for my health and future life.