Whatever You Do

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
- 1st Corinthians 10:31

As you can tell from the title of this blog, two things close to my heart are my relationship with the Lord, and food.  In that order. (Ok, I know that's the order they SHOULD be in, but sometimes my greed eclipses all else). 

Isn't it convenient how we are quick to point the finger at those who drink too much (or at all, depending on your viewpoint on alcohol), gamble, smoke, or any other "sin" that we ourselves aren't particularly guilty of, but mention our appetites and the barriers immediately go up.

Why is that? 

For me, it's because I am ruled by my stomach.  There, I said it.  I am greedy.  I love food.  Pretty much all of it.  I am not hugely overweight, but neither am I a healthy weight for my height.  The reason is down to me.  It's not my metabolism or my genes (they don't fit me as well as they used to either!) or anything other than my own fault.  I hazard a guess for those of you reading this, uncomfortable as it may be, you are in the same boat, if you are brave enough to admit it. 

We live in a world where we live to excess.  We want to earn more than we need, we want to eat more than we need, we want to accumulate more electronic devices than we need, we want more material things than we could ever need or make use of, and we want it all right now. 

It's an area I need God's help to work on.  I have a responsibility to be healthy for my husband and my kids so that I can be the wife and mother God wants me to be, without contracting some self-inflicted disease like diabetes or high blood pressure for example. (I'm not for one second saying these illnesses are always self-inflicted - far from it - and I didn't mean to offend by saying that).

The question posed in the bible verse is whether we are eating for the glory of God.  Let's remember gluttony is a sin.  Just because we plug our ears and sing "lalalala" to drown out the sound of that truth does not make it less true. 

As a new year approaches, I would like to address this issue in my own life.  Not through a fad diet or appetite suppressants, but with God-given willpower and self-control.  After all, His Word tells us quite clearly that the fruit of the spirit includes self-control.  This article from Got Questions sums it up nicely.  If we are shovelling food into our faces as the picture above depicts, then we are certainly not glorifying God. 

http://www.gotquestions.org/gluttony-sin.html

God Bless.