The Temples We Destroy

What stories does your mind tell you about your body?

My mind, over 35 years of being a female who judges her body (I estimate I started when I was 7), has created the following thoughts:

• my forehead is high

• my eyebrows are bushy

• my head is big

• my feet are big, too (but my pinkie toenail is very, very small)

• my teeth are not straight enough

• my butt is rather flat

• the veins in my hands are very pronounced

… and someday soon I will inevitably inherit my grandmother’s potbelly.

No doubt still feeling the effects of the narcotics, my mother recounted the story of my birth on audiocassette in early February 1974. I assume she went into detail about how the jaws of life were necessary to pull me from her cozy uterus thanks to my pronounced noggin.

But, I haven’t listened to the tape in so long I don’t remember what she said. (Note to self: Blog about the problem with assumptions. Note to self again: Buy a cassette player on Ebay.)

I don’t recall my mom telling me I had/have/am destined to have a big head (yes, she’s a good mommy.) But, my mind has told me this thousands of times.

When I was in middle school and we were forced (!) to complete the Presidential Fitness Test, I remember looking at the charts of height and weight that accompanied the program. I was always on the high end. Am I fat? Am I normal? Oh, the torment! I could never figure out what I was. I would look in the mirror and like what I saw, but the chart said I was a big girl, and my mind said that being a big girl is bad.

As I learned what I could “take care of,” with regard to my body, I started to pluck my eyebrows, and for six years I have minimized my potbellyish tendencies by running regularly. For my teeth, my parents invested in braces.

And everything else about my body…is as it is. I don’t plan to get foot reduction surgery anytime soon, and high foreheads are perfect for well-cut bangs, in my opinion.

All the thoughts my mind has created about my body over the years are not simply thoughts like, “your eyebrows are thick.” No, my mind didn’t stop there. My mind added, “…and thick eyebrows are ewwwww.”

Are thick eyebrows bad? No. Eyebrows just are. Are big feet bad? No. Feet just are. They are what they are. We can either 1) continue resisting what is and have frustration; 2) change what we can and have peace; 3) or accept what is and have peace.

Who’s to say bushy eyebrows are unattractive anyway? Oh, maybe Jesus said it. Remember that verse, “Those with a trimmed brow thereby shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.”? Of course you don’t.

So, who (or what) is telling us what’s beautiful about our body, and what’s not beautiful about it? The world is the culprit. Our minds adopt and believe the insane chatter of the dysfunctional world we live in.

Jesus reminded us we are not of this world. Why, then, are we surprised when the world does not love us? If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own…you are not of the world…I chose you out of the world, (and) because of this, the world hates you. – John 15:18-19

Most of our thoughts are not born from the Holy Spirit within us. They are pressed upon us by a world that’s not our friend. It inflicts a wound and then infects it, unless we begin to heal it by realizing our thoughts are not necessarily the truth. It’s so freeing to realize you don’t have to believe everything you think!

For my part, I want that mindless chatter of the world – the chatter that’s now stuck in my mind – to stop. So, I practice listening to my thoughts. The more I practice, the better I get. It’s one way I’m committing to being the change I want to see in the world. (Thank you, Gandhi.)

I once read a self-help book about self-esteem, and the author offered a healing response to our inner critics. He asked readers to place their hands on that part of their body they are most critical of, and send it love and gratitude…

“Thank you, eyebrows, for keeping sweat out of my eyeballs.”

“Thank you, feet, for keeping me balanced when I’m dizzy.”

“Thank you, flabby belly, because in there somewhere, about 12 years ago, a baby blossomed. You did your job and you did it beautifully.”

God tells us to glorify our body; to care for the temple in which the Holy Spirit resides. Don’t destroy your temple; honor it. Don’t destroy it with too many cookies, putting your hand in a veg-o-matic, or polluting it with critical thoughts and unnecessary suffering.

Paul explained to the Corinthians that our body is a temple and it’s holy. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” 1 Cor 3:16-17

May we deeply understand that “destroy” does not only mean physical pain and punishment, but includes the punishment we bring to it through our thoughts and emotions. From this day forward, may we bring nothing but honor to our body. May we love our body and accept it, while keeping it as healthy as possible.

And may we honor our temple in word and deed, no matter what the Kardashians do.

Amen.