1 Corinthians 6:19-20

1 Corinthians 6:19-20, "Do you not know that your body is a temple 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 body."

If you are reading my blog, you are probably interested in health/fitness... if you are interested in health/fitness, you may be at least the tiniest bit concerned about your outward appearance (or if you are just a woman in general) and chances are if you have any of these aforementioned qualities- more often than not, you have thought negative thoughts about your body.

Unfortunately, these statistics are completely true-
    ~90% of all women wish they could change at least one part of their outward appearance
    ~1 out of 4 college-aged women have an eating disorder
    ~Only 2% of all women think they are beautiful
How sad is this? How did it come to this? Why are our female minds so ready to be hard on ourselves?
It is as if we play a game with our other female friends, "Who Can Bash Themselves the Best!"
It is perfectly acceptable to degrade yourself with negative comments like, "I feel huge" "Ugh-I hate my flabby arms!" or the ever popular: "My butt is soooo big!" - yet - it would be awkward to hear someone say, "Wow- I feel beautiful today, I am grateful the Lord gave me the body He did."

WHY!?

If we wouldn't say these comments to a friend why we would say them to ourselves?
If we think guys should treat ladies better, why do we talk to ourselves like we're dirt?
God made us. Would you blatantly tell an artist that their piece of art was out of whack? Too colorful here, too wide there? no! So why do we tell God that His piece of work (our bodies) are designed wrong?

Who am I to say that the Lord of the Universe, the Man who created the stars above, sea below and ice cream for goodness sake - created trash when He made me?

I challenge you all (as well as myself!) to start tomorrow right now fresh. Try to love yourself just a little more each day. I'm not saying you have to think you are perfect because none of us are. I'm not saying to forget about diet and exercise because we still need to take care of ourselves. But love yourself. Love yourself for the amazing and beautiful creature God created you to be. Love yourself for all your qualities (even the ones you think are "bad")

Just LOVE yourself! God does - and if He can after all we've done to try and loose that love, I think we owe it to Him (and ourselves) to respect His creation for all it was meant to be.