Honor Your Spouse with Your Body - Crosswalk Couples Devotional - September 17
Crosswalk Couples Devotional
Audio By Carbonatix
By Michelle S. Lazurek, Crosswalk.com
Honor Your Spouse with Your Body
By: Michelle Lazurek
"Therefore, I urge you... to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." Romans 12:1
Last year, I received some difficult news from the doctor. After evaluating my thyroid, she stated that I had an autoimmune disorder that was eating away at it. She believed I would eventually have to have the thyroid removed because the thyroid gland was not working correctly. I was devastated and thought the worst. I thought I would never see my grandkids or watch my children grow up and get married.
After asking the doctor for advice on what I could do, she made specific suggestions regarding my diet and exercise. Although we have made several tweaks and have had some setbacks during the past year, I'm proud to report that the autoimmune disorder is now in remission, and my thyroid levels are now balanced.
During a conversation with my husband, he confessed that he was also struggling with eating right and getting proper exercise. His physical health was taking a toll. He was tired all the time, lacked energy, and felt down. After a long day at work, he often succumbed to the temptation of making a quick meal rather than preparing his meals ahead of time, so he had good, healthy food to eat when he got home. Instead, due to fatigue, he simply made whatever was quick and easy.
Although I had also fallen into that temptation for many years, my current blood work told me I needed to change. I needed to eat healthy food, take vitamins, drink more water, exercise, and get enough sleep. I do well at self-care, but I knew that there were things I could do to improve. When I made those changes, although they were hard, I was able to see the hard work reflected in my blood work just a year later.
Marriage alone requires hard work and investment to ensure its success. However, an area of Christian life that can often fall by the wayside is their health. It is easy to lack sleep, work late, and succumb to sugary foods and snacks after a long, hard day. Sometimes we even justify this behavior by saying we deserve it or give in to convenience after a long, hard day. But God, like anything else, wants us to present him with everything and give him our best. This includes our bodies.
The above verse tells us that our bodies are living sacrifices, and when we care for them, we are worshipping the Lord. Think of it this way: every unhealthy food you eat is like choosing to skip an intimate moment with the Lord.
When we choose to think of our bodies this way, it motivates us to change our bad habits and replace them with good ones so that we can serve the Lord all the days of our lives. Serving the Lord when we are tired, overweight, and lacking energy is challenging. The American diet doesn't lend itself to high energy, good nutrition, and health. We can do our best to ensure that we honor our bodies the same way we honor them with everything else.
Honoring God means honoring our marriage. Honoring our marriage means honoring our bodies. When we choose to honor our bodies, it's as if we are honoring our marriage. We can present healthy bodies to each other that will allow us to carry out God's mission for us every day. When we choose to take shortcuts or make things easy rather than doing the hard work of preparation and better food selection, we dishonor God and our marriages with our bodies.
Honor God with your body. When you honor God with your body, you uphold your marriage vows.
Prayer:
Father, let us be a couple who works on their health together. Making better food choices, regular exercise, and sufficient sleep are all good habits for any couple to adopt. Just as Scripture tells us, two are better than one. Let us join forces and work on our health together, so we can be happy and healthy to serve the Lord every day of our lives. Amen.
Michelle S. Lazurek is a multi-genre award-winning author, speaker, pastor's wife, and mother. She is a literary agent for Wordwise Media Services and host of The Spritual Reset Podcast. Her new children’s book Hall of Faith encourages kids to understand God can be trusted. When not working, she enjoys sipping a Starbucks latte, collecting 80s memorabilia, and spending time with her family and her crazy dog. For more info, please visit her website www.michellelazurek.
Related Resource: 3 Simple Ways to Feed Your Spouse More Praise
How often do you intentionally stop to praise your spouse? To recognize and affirm their character or actions? Many of us probably cringe at answering these questions because we know we could do better! If you struggle to feed your spouse praise regularly, this episode is for you. Listen in as we share some practical steps we all can take to criticize less and affirm and build up our spouse more. If this episode helps your marriage, be sure to subscribe to Team Us on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode.
