A quick google search shows that women want to know about beauty. These 4 tips for keeping your body beautiful and healthy are about caring for yourself the way you’d care for God’s physical dwelling place – His temple.
Society has made outer appearance a part of our identity. Even worse, we tend to base our self-worth on our hair, makeup, clothes, and body size.
The world puts a lot of value and stock in how a person looks on the outside. We look at a person and immediately pass judgement based on their outer appearance.
Christians should care about their outer appearance as a means to reflect a heart that’s been molded and shaped by God and to accentuate God’s handiwork, you!
Go back and read or listen to this post about inner beauty if haven’t read it.
Why Temple aka Body Care Matters
Yes, our outer appearance matters– because it’s how the world judges. But our outer appearance shouldn’t line-up with the world’s thinking.
Our outer appearance should be taken care of because it reflects certain aspects of God. Anything we do to our natural physical appearance should be done to reflect the joy in God’s created beauty… not to cover up or disguise it.
When we do this, the world will see God reflected in and through us.
Israel participated in the temple life so they would continue to be molded into people that lived set apart from the world – living with
- forgiveness,
- open-hearts,
- justice, and
- redemption.
Israel didn’t keep the temple beautiful for the sake of its beauty…It was about keeping it beautiful so they could worship, to the best of their ability, the God who created them and gave them life.
Taking care of the temple allowed Israel to participate fully in their relationship with God.
Here are 4 ways to enhance your outer beauty and worship of God, so you glitter like gold to the world.
4 Ways to Beautify the Temple of God (your body)
Your physical body has an important job. Well, many important jobs.
- Without it you wouldn’t be here.
- Your family wouldn’t have you.
- You’d not get anything done.
- And God’s purposes for you wouldn’t be fulfilled.
But…you are here (you’re reading or listening to this post afterall). Since your body is alive and has many important things to do, don’t you think caring for it should be a top priority?
I thought so.
These tips are all about taking the best care of you possible. About making sure your physical body glitters like gold and reflects God to the watching world. Most of the things listed apply to both your body and the skin covering it.
Your skin is the largest organ in your body and one of its main jobs is protecting you. Seems kinda important to take great care of something that God designed to protect you, doesn’t it?
Some of the ways to care for our skin and body include:
- what we eat,
- how much we sleep,
- the amount and type of liquid we drink,
- our stress levels,
- physical activity, and
- what we put on our skin.
Today we’re covering four of these things.
Skin Cleansing & Care
In the Old Testament skin was associated with purity and godliness (according to some historians). Women in the Old Testament used loofahs or milk to exfoliate the skin and olive oil mixed with essential oils, such as frankincense or myrrh, to moisturize and heal their skin. Washing the face was also done but not with soaps. Instead oils were used to pull impurities off the face.
As for those loofahs, did you know you can grow them in your garden?
I first realized this when helping at a friends farm in Georgia. We’d harvest the gourd and hang it to dry and then take them to market. Here’s Good Housekeeping’s guide to growing your own.
Loofahs are also available at most department and skin care stores.
Want to give milk a try like the women in the Old Testament might have? Women’s Health magazine
has an article on using milk to get silky smooth skin. We’d love to know if you do this or have ever tried it.
A quick jump over to google and I pulled up 184,000,000 articles on cleaning your skin with oil. Here’s a video from Mind Body Green and an article from Healthline and Wellness Mama.
My skin has always been prone to acne and being dry so I’ll give each of these methods a go and report back on our Instagram page.
Here are our top product picks for cleaning your face and body:
Attitude Body Wash and Moisturizers
This company can be found at some Walmarts and has many great body washes, soaps and moisturizers.
Everyone Soap
This is available at Target and has many products besides just soap.
Be Green Cleansers and Moisturizers
Dr. Bronners
This is one of my longtime favorites. Why? Cuz it can be used to do everything. It can be used to clean your hair, body, face, dishes, and house. It’s also available at Walmart, Target and most drugstores.
Feeding Your Skin & Body
If you’re like me, you’ve noticed what you eat affects your skin. The food we do or don’t eat can show up as acne, red blotchy spots, or puffiness on our face and body.
Food can also lead to the exact opposite results. It’s these opposite results we’re after. I’ve never met a woman who didn’t want clear skin and a body that wasn’t bloated, puffy, or blotchy.
You? Thought so.
Food has the power to heal the body but it can also lead to sickness and disease. When I think of the fact that we’re the temple of God, the Holy Spirits dwelling place, it changes the way I feed my body.
Why?
I want to feed my body in a way that keeps the Spirits dwelling place strong and able to serve God all the days of my life. When I don’t feed my body in a way that leads to health it’s kinda like letting termites in the temple.
They’ll eat away at the physical structure until suddenly things start falling apart. This isn’t something I want happening to the Holy Spirit’s dwelling place.
I don’t want God represented by a termite eaten temple. I’m guessing you’re not wanting that either.
The big question is…What should we eat for head-to-toe beautiful skin and a healthy body? The answer is one I’ve given before and one I’ll give again and again – The Food God Created.
Not only that but a diet that consists of mostly vegetables.
Ugh! Yes, vegetables.
The idea of diet impacting our skin has been around since the 1800’s. Chocolate, dairy, high-glycemic foods, and processed foods have all been blamed for causing acne. Loren Cordain, who started the Paleo diet movement, was the first to recognize that high-glycemic, processed food diets resulted in breakouts.
Want to feed your skin so it’s as beautiful as the gold covering the temple walls?
Eat mostly plants with a small side of protein, whole grains, healthy fats, and fruit. I like the Harvard Healthy Eating Plate. It’s a simple guide on what a well-balanced plate should contain.
Be sure to look at these posts here and here for more information on healthy eating.
Hydrating Your Skin & Body
If you water your garden, the plants in your house, and your pets…don’t you think it’s important to water yourself?
Not drinking enough actual water can lead to dry, taught, flakey, and/or wrinkled skin. The water in vegetables and fruits counts towards your daily water need and can help with skin hydration.
Drinking water also causes us to eat fewer calories, less sugar, and helps with weight loss.
There’s a small catch though – our skin is the last organ to receive water.
Because of this, it’s important to
- drink water,
- eat food with water in it to benefit our body,
- and apply water directly to our skin.
This can be done by applying moisturizer to your skin right after you take a shower or wash your face.
Here are our top product picks for hydrating your skin
Aromatica Argan Serum or Jojoba Oil
This one is a bit pricey but you’re pretty priceless
Beekman 1802 Skin Milk
Another pricey one that’s made with goats milk.
Beautycounter Countertime Products
This company sells their products similar to Mary Kay. If you’re interested in purchasing from them, I’d bet someone at your church sells it.
C’est Moi Gentle Moisture Lotion
This one’s available at Target and is just as good as the more expensive ones. Key is it working for your skin.
Hydrating Vegetables & Fruit
Of all foods, vegetables contain the most water. Some veggies are 90% water (makes you wonder why they aren’t natural soup).
The top vegetables for hydrating your skin and body:
Lettuce
Celery
Bok Choy
Radishes
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Watercress
Tomatoes
Bell Peppers
Asparagus
Mushrooms
Swiss Chard
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Spinach
Broccoli
The fruits with the highest water are:
Watermelon
Stawberries
Grapefruit
Cantaloupe
Peaches
Asian Pears
Blackberries
Papaya
Nectarines
Plums
Oranges
Apricots
Pineapple
Raspberries
Apples
Blueberries
I love how God made the food with the most water to grow during the times of the year we need more water.
His way with things is so so far beyond our understanding. Love that and boy do I love God.
Sleep and Your Skin & Body
Turns out the old phrase about getting your ‘beauty sleep’ is actually true. People who don’t get at least 7-9 hours of good quality sleep age faster and the skin’s ability to repair itself at night is weakened.
One study deprived participants of sleep for two nights. They photographed them throughout the 48 hour period and showed the photos to 122 random ‘raters”.
Sleep deprivation led raters to view those people as less attractive, less healthy, and as someone they’d not want to socialize with. Ikes!
Sleep is also important for physical health.
When you don’t get the recommended 7-9hours of sleep your risk of developing serious medical conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease goes up.
There’s actually an even more serious medical condition that goes up with lack of sleep…a shortened lifespan.
Anybody, other than me, ready for a nap and a solid 8 hours of sleep moving forward?
God made us to need sleep and we’ve got to put sleep as a top priority. You can’t make up for lost sleep over the weekend either. Research has shown that doesn’t work.
7-9 hours of sleep is needed each and every night. The question is how.
Here are 8 tips:
- Increase bright light exposure during the day. Go outside once an hour. Keep a sunlamp on your desk and in your house like one of these lamps.
- Wear blue light blocking glasses while using the computer and don’t look at computer or phone screens an hour before bed (yup, seriously).
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time (even on the weekends).
- Use lavender essential oil an hour or two before bed.
- Don’t drink alcohol. Alcohol alters the body’s natural production of melatonin.
- Make sure your bedroom is dark, quiet, peaceful and kept cool.
- Have a bedtime routine that helps you relax. This could include a shower or bath, reading before bed, spending time in prayer or God’s Word, and/or listening to restful music.
- Make physical activity a part of your day but not too close to bedtime (unless it’s a relaxing stroll around the block).
Hopefully these tips will help you get your beauty sleep. We know the rest of your body will thank you for it. Here’s the sleep tips on a PDF: Sleep & You
In Closing…
There are many moving parts to caring for our bodies in a way that honors God. There are also many ways to care for your body.
We pray you glorify God with all you are. That your outer beauty and the way you care for yourself, provides an opportunity to share God with someone. May your time with God change you from the inside out.
The tips we’ve included barely scratch the surface but we pray they give you some ideas.
We’d also love to know your top self-care routines and product picks. Leave a comment below or send us an email here.
Next week we’re continuing with appearance and talking about Naomi, weighty matters, physical activity, and more.
Until then…
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