GIGO

You know the old saying, “First you eat to live, and then you live to eat”? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that’s no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body! (I Corinthians 6:13 MSG)

Honor him with your body. Uhm...how's that going? Your body, my body, all our bodies - created in his image, with the special purpose of actually connecting with him in a meaningful relationship. The sooner we understand that we weren't created to fulfill all our whims and fancies, the more we will begin to allow the change of our 'desires' and 'wants' to match up to what he has designed for us.

While our earthly bodies are a 'temporary temple' for his presence, it doesn't mean we can ignore them or treat them in a 'disrespectful' manner. True as that may be, it is sometimes quite hard for us to resist that chocolate cake or bowl of munchies in the evening, isn't it? We 'know' in our heads that we aren't treating this 'temple' as we should, but our emotions frequently override what we know in our minds. When we finally get those two things to work together, it is a great thing indeed!

We are honored with a body - created in his image. Think upon those words for just a few moments today. In what ways have we been dishonoring what he created? It could be we spend far little effort in taking care of this body. It might even be we take way too much care of our bodies and neglect the spiritual side of our lives. Either way, we are not honoring what he created. 

What goes in eventually comes out - hence the saying used in technology today, "Garbage In, Garbage Out" or GIGO. The same is true of our emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being. We overindulge one or more emotional urges, and we might find ourselves leaning way too far toward always indulging those emotions. We ignore our spiritual food, such as time in his Word, prayer, and worship, and we will feel a bit 'under-nourished' spiritually.

If we are going to 'indulge', we might consider the results of that indulgence before we undertake it. Every diet known to man is designed to control what indulgences we are 'allowed' to have, aren't they? If we begin to think about our bodies as God's temple a little more, we might just consider what we 'indulge' in a little better, as well. We might not binge watch as much reality TV or spend our time always avoiding family life.

Considering what we have allowed into our 'eye-gate', our 'ear-gate', and even our 'mouth-gate' is just a start on paying attention to this temple's health and well-being. If we don't start somewhere, we will eventually find the temple rundown and completely empty! Just sayin!