fit n trim healthy vs fit n trim unhealthy

Previously, I shared with you my secrets to building my own personal temple for God. But, back the truck up several years and you find a me torn in many different directions. Let's get really raw and honest here folks... It was not so much about "feeling" good and being healthy in my own skin, it was more about "looking" good. I was one of the typical teen girls looking at the celebrities and "all the others" for what was "beautiful". I would "people watch". When I was younger I thought it was harmless and of course everyone was doing it so why did I have to be any different.

Over the years, however, I began to self analyze. I realized something. I began to understand that so much of my self worth, self image and negative destructive thought patterns were being formed because of the "junk" I was putting in. A guilty pleasure of mine may have been a quick glance through a celebrity magazine, or a zip through a gossip website, or a t.v. show. It all seemed so harmless because goodness knows everyone and their Grandma seems to indulge the senses these days.

As I began systematically eliminating these things from my mind, heart and spirit I was SO amazed at how joy-filled I was becoming. I was no longer allowing myself to drift into negative or self destructive thoughts because I was no longer bombarding my mind with what everyone else thought was beautiful or what everyone else thought was worth talking about and thinking about. Quickly I took back control over my own thoughts and who I wanted to be for me and for God not for anyone else.

Below are pictures of me. I don't want you to look at them as me though for a moment I just want you to see the ever changing shape of a woman, a girl, a person--just like you. Our bodies change...we go through so much hormonally, health-wise, trends, seasons and it's OKAY! We fluctuate and we change because we are not stagnant rocks or lifeless beings. We are created beings. We are created beings that change and go through seasons of change. Like a flower; we grow, we blossom, we wilt and because we are given the chance by God's design, we can blossom again and again into our different shapes.

Our body is not our temple, but His.

And if we truly desire to invite the Holy Spirit to dwell in our residence, to dwell within our very being, then we MUST be willing to create a healthy whole place for that very thing to happen! 

So, how do we do that? Well, we start with where we are. We embrace exactly where we are and who we are and yet, we also acknowledge and admit... and then confess to Him that it may not be where He is leading and calling us to be. And so next, we embrace the journey to creating a healthy temple for His dwelling. That is not only done by what we allow to enter our bodies through our eyes, mind, heart, mouths and emotions, but it also involves what we put out of our bodies by our words and deeds. So, we begin making decisions that cleanse and free us.

So go on friends, and build Him a temple! 

Much love, 

Abi