The House God Gave Me

The way he treats his body, you’d think he was renting. ~Robert Brault

Summer time (aka-bathing suit season) is pretty much here, and as a result, Ive had some interesting conversations with my friends. Mostly girlfriends because from my persepective men just dont seem to worry about how they look in a swim suit. I could be wrong (I very often am) but it seems to me that when its 32 degrees out, men just strip it off, put on a pair of swim shorts and hop in the water or attach themselves by a rope to the back of a boat to get yanked all over a lake with a board strapped to their feet.
No worries of looking too fat, ohmygosh is this suit see through when it gets wet, do I have an ass cheek hanging out?

I had a conversation recently with a sponsee in regards to our bodies.
Its beginning to feel that anytime I look in the mirror and pick apart what I see, it seems a little like thumbing my nose at God and telling Him he should have done better work.
This is not to say that I take no personal responsibility for body troubles that I have created.
These days Im enjoying the idea that God gave me a house to live in, my body, but I need to be responsible for the maitenance of that house. I need to treat with care and kindness the house he provided. I need to show my gratitude by eating well, exersizing, getting proper sleep.
Making the decision to not polute my house with drugs and alcohol anymore was just the beginning.
Sometimes when I light up a cigarette, I become all too aware that I am damaging the house God gave me. When I eat a bag of chips in place of lunch, I know I could and should do better.
Its another one of those things that I am going to need to ask for God's help with. (I havent asked yet because frankly Im a little fearful of what that help will look like when it arrives. And Im well aware that it will require a whole lot of effort and discipline on my part)

Viewing my body as a gift from God, the house He gave me to live in, has helped me to be able to look in the mirror and appreciate and even come to love and accept myself. There was a time when I would have happily trudged off to visit a plastic surgeon to get a smaller nose, perkier boobs and the little lines erased from around my eyes.
I have a deeper understanding of inner beauty and the importance of working all of the spiritual principles into my daily living. I am grateful and blessed that the house I was given is in fine working order (even though I treated it as a party house for a long while)and that I have a responsibility to not simply 'feel' grateful but to show my gratitude by taking care of my house. I still spend too much time working on my home's curb appeal and too little time doing the hard to see spring cleaning.
But as it has been with everything else in recovery....first comes awareness, then comes the willingness to change.
Home Sweet Home