Why Your Diet Matters as a Christian
Today I had a conversation with my preteen daughter about 1 Corinthians 16:19-20.
You know the verses about how your body is a temple?
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” – 1 Corinthians 16:19-20
It started off as a simple question based on her history lesson which was apparently about tobacco farming.
She wanted to know if tobacco had always caused cancer. Yes. Then why did people ever start growing it?
Deep thoughts for a Wednesday morning before I’ve finished my coffee.
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So I dive into the origin of tobacco knowing that this will be a wayfaring peregrination of a trip. (That homeschool vocabulary is killing me y’all.) Along the way we take detours through the discovery of cancer, the economics of growing tobacco, the social pressures of smoking, vaping, dipping, and snuff. We took a detour somewhere that led to how Coca-Cola used to have cocaine in it. Then we ran by the awkward climes of my personal experiences where I admitted that, yes I had tried a cigarette before we disembarked at our final destination.
There will always be things that you can put into your body that are bad for you.
And it may not be just illegal things.
Vaping is legal.
Smoking cigarettes is legal.
Sure, you’ve got to be 18 to buy them, but kids have been getting around that for years.
This thought was alarming to my sweet, rule-following, firstborn.
“If things that are illegal now used to be legal but were still bad for you, how can we know what is okay?” She asked.
Treat your body like a temple.
And then the conversation got really real, really fast.
So, like, we’re not supposed to eat junk food?? She asked.
At first, I laughed.
And as the words, No. Junk food is fine. That’s just food. filled my mouth, I choked on them a little.
Because it’s not “just food.”
Food is fuel for our body and when we forget that, we stop treating our body like a temple.
When we treat food as a treat or as an afterthought, it’s a slippery slope.
According to the American Medical Association, “39.6 percent of adults and 18.5 percent of children ages 2 to 19 in America have obesity,” the State of Obesity report noted that “these are the highest rates ever documented by NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey).”
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Our world is on a crusade to rid the world of diseases like cancer and AIDS and it’s totally noble but also a huge undertaking.
Here’s what I mean: I am not going to find a cure for cancer.
I’m not even looking because I have no idea where to even start.
I am not a scientist.
I am a stay at home mom.
There’s no scenario where I cure a single case of cancer.
Literally none.
But cancer isn’t the number one killer in America.
The number one killer in America is heart disease. And while there is definitely a hereditary element to heart disease, the number one predictor of heart disease is weight.
So if I teach my children to eat healthily and exercise, and they never get heart disease, I should get credit for curing 4 people of heart disease.
Someone, please, tell my husband to buy me a medal.
Because y’all…
That’s doable.
And not only is it doable, but it’s also mandated.
As Christians, we’re supposed to obey the Bible. We don’t get to pick and choose to only follow the thing we like. It’s an all or nothing kind of thing. Either the whole Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God that we are supposed to do our best to live by every single day or it’s not.
And sure, we can debate semantics. We can argue that dietary restrictions are so Old Testament. We could claim that Old Testament dietary laws were superseded by Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament.
But even if you fall into the New Testament rules camp, 1 Corinthians 16:19-20 is in the New Testament.
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” – 1 Corinthians 16:19-20
As if keeping kids alive wasn’t hard enough, let’s also throw into the mix that Jesus said to not feed them junk.
UUUUUUGH.
Not gonna lie. This one is really stressing me out.
But I believe we can break this cycle together.
And here’s why we have to start behaving as if our diets are an imperative part of our Christian lifestyle.
1. Habits are hard to break.
For most people, the way that they were raised to eat is how they will continue to eat.
My husband was raised on McDonald’s. He has struggled with his weight and health his whole life. He is currently in the best shape of his life. He is eating well and exercising often. He has lost fat and built muscle, but McDonald’s still calls to him.
If you were raised to eat out a lot, you will eat out a lot.
If you were raised to eat Hamburger Helper as a kid, you will eat Hamburger Helper as an adult.
If you were raised to eat grass-fed, organic beef and farmer’s market veggies, you will continue to shop at the farmer’s market.
Habits are hard to break.
Granted, there are some exceptions.
Obviously, if you ate spaghetti once a week as a kid and HATED it, you won’t cook spaghetti as an adult.
There are always people that break patterns, but it’s done deliberately.
So the way that you are feeding your child now is the primary way that they will feed themselves later.
Does that thought make you happy or not?
2. The Bible says to eat healthy.
I’m not trying to be cute here, but the Bible says we are supposed to treat our bodies as a temple, so that’s what we need to do.
And before you tell me that your body is just a busted can of biscuits style temple, let’s re-read that verse.
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” – 1 Corinthians 16:19-20
“Honor God with your bodies.”
That’s like a punch to my flabby mom tummy.
Consider this: how upset do church members get when the church building isn’t cared for well?
Churches have split over chairs versus pews debates.
People have moved memberships over carpet colors.
One man screamed and threatened my husband with bodily harm over a Nerf dart he found in the sanctuary one Sunday morning after my husband had been the only adult chaperone for a Nerf war with the youth the night before and had missed a dart during his 1 am clean up.
Church buildings are treated with reverence.
What if everyone in your church treated their own bodies with as much care as they do the actual church building?
What if the members of your church were as committed to honoring God with their bodies as they were to making sure the building that they met in was clean?
Christians would have a totally different reputation.
How many times have we seen Christians in movies and television depicted as overweight casserole consumers?
Not only that, but Christians would actually look different.
People would be able to tell who was a Christian by what they bought at the grocery store.
Doctors would do studies to see why Christians weren’t suffering from the same diseases that plague America because Christians wouldn’t have heart disease or type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure or suffer from obesity.
Just thinking about that is kind of wild.
3. If we get it right, it fixes everything.
Okay, that may be a little bold, but seriously.
How many problems would be solved if we all truly believed that our bodies were a temple?
What would it look like is we acted like our bodies did not belong to us but were bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ? What if we believed that Jesus loved us so much that he suffered a hideously painful death for our bodies? How would we change our behavior if our bodies were simply on loan from the creator of the universe and that we were told to take great care with them?
Premarital sex?
Nope. This body isn’t mine. I’m keeping it pure until I’m married.
Which immediately prevents STDs, unplanned pregnancies, and untold heartbreak.
Smoking or vaping?
Not these lungs! These lungs are part of a temple that belongs to God and he does not want any smoke in it.
Drugs?
Absolutely not. This body is not my own. It was bought at a price and it’s my job to keep it in good shape.
I mean, almost all of the pressures our kids will face from middle school through college would be solved if they truly believed their bodies were a temple that belonged to God.
So how do we actually model treating our body like a temple?
How can we teach our kids that their bodies are a temple, that they were bought with a price, and they are not theirs?
Here are 3 ways to teach your kids that their diet matters as a Christian.
1. Model it.
Start today by treating your body like a temple.
Imagine that God has simply given you this physical body on loan and someday you’ll have to answer to Him for how you cared for it.
Gulp.
If your body is far from tip-top temple shape right now, that’s okay.
Start today to make changes.
You can pick whatever diet and exercise program works for you. There’s a ton to choose from.
But you may not even need one.
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You may be able to get into the best shape of your life by simply asking yourself “Does this food/activity/thought/action/etc. honor God?”
Is it God-honoring and temple strengthening to eat a cheeseburger from McDonald’s?
No.
What about never exercising those muscles he’s loaning you for that temple?
No.
Eating whole foods that you can pronounce the name of and will give your body the nutrients it needs?
Yes.
Choosing to do some exercise or walk around the block instead of watching TV or scrolling through Facebook?
Yes.
Your children will notice the change. And they are great immitators.
They will do Pilates, P90X, walking, bicycling, squats, or water aerobics with you.
They may not get on board with salads over pizzas as quickly, but give it time.
2. Talk about it
Kids are smart, and we often forget that.
Simply sitting down and talking to your kids about what the Bible says we’re supposed to do with our bodies is going to make a huge difference.
Read the verses together.
Talk about what they mean.
Ask them what they think your family should do.
Guide them to the right answers.
Search for new recipes together and go to the store together to buy the ingredients.
Remind them that spaghetti squash was their idea when they tell you they hate it.
I’m not saying it’s going to be super easy if you’ve been doing drive-through dinners for years, but, again, your kids are smart and they’re much more likely to get on board if they’re part of the decision making process.
Also, it’s okay if it needs to be a gradual change.
If you’ve always ordered pizzas on for a family movie night on Fridays, order pizza.
Or try making some homemade pizza with slightly healthier ingredients. My husband and I switched to cauliflower crust for our Friday night pizza. And honestly it doesn’t taste as good, but I know that it’s better for my body so that makes it much more palatable.
And last week, two of my kids wanted to try my cauliflower pizza because that’s mom life (or are my kids the only ones who think everything on my plate looks better?).
They both said they liked it and they’d like to have “mom pizza” this week. (Someone out there needs to market cauliflower pizza as “Mom Pizza” and hook me up with some royalties.)
3. Set Goals and Rewards
You know that first week when you’re trying something new and you’re just all in?
And then the second week rolls around and you’ve cooled to the idea?
And by the third week, you’re not even sure why you started in the first place and you’re totally okay with quitting?
Yeah.
Me too.
So to help combat that cycle, set some specific goals and rewards.
For example, “If our family eats healthy for 18 out of 21 meals (Breakfast, lunch, and dinner times 7) this week, we will go the movies or rent a movie to watch together this weekend.”
Or if your kids are younger, the reward could be something as simple as going to the park to play or riding bikes.
Kids are incredibly satisfied with small things.
It’s adults who overdo it most of the time.
In conclusion, treating our bodies like a temple isn’t just an interesting concept that we should consider.
It’s a mandate from God, and it’s time we started following it. Having a good, healthy diet as a Christian is imperative.
What do you think about following a Christian diet and treating your body like a temple? Tell us in the comments!
WANT TO REMEMBER THIS? PIN WHY YOU NEED TO FOLLOW A CHRISTIAN DIET TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!
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