Weekend Kindness
Reaching Others Through Kindness

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Our society gives us messages of “rights” and “freedom” when it comes to “what I do with my body”. Particularly if you are a woman, you know what I mean– we are inundated with messages that we should live to make ourselves happy- that we are free to dress how we want, live how we want, and anyone who has a problem with it needs to get over it.

But for the Christian, our bodies are not our own to do whatever we’d like with them. If you are married, there are two Scripture passages that talk about your body that are worth consideration:

• 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says this: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

• In the next chapter, Paul has this to say to married believers: “For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” (1 Corinthians 7:4)

So what I want to talk about is this: how often do we do this, in practice?

When you get dressed in the morning, do you consider how you can honor God in your dress? Do you consider what your husband or wife would like to see you wear? Do you wear your hair and dress for God and for your spouse’s pleasure? Or are you clinging to modern language of “rights” and “individual expression” that would give you reason to dress and wear your hair for your own pleasure?

Many people have personal convictions about hair length or clothing styles that are appropriate for them, but that’s not really what I’m talking about here. In general, are you honoring God with your body? With the way you clothe and decorate your body? Are you purposefully aware that your body is not your own? That firstly, it belongs to God? And that after that, it belongs to your husband or wife?

Let’s ditch the modern attitude that says, “I can do whatever I want because I’m the one who has to live with it,” and instead, begin conforming our physical image to that which is honoring to God and enjoyable to our husband or wife. Maybe after you get the kids in bed tonight, you could take a few minutes to look your spouse in the eyes and ask outright: “I want to be attractive to you. Is there anything I’m doing that you wish I would do differently? Is there anything I’m not doing that would make me more attractive to you? I really want to know.”

Course, then we have to be humble enough to hear a genuine answer. Ladies, it may be that you have been wearing your hair in a way that he doesn’t like for YEARS, or that you’ll have to start taking a little more time to get ready in the morning. Men, it may be that you need to purchase a nose hair trimmer, or that you need to go to a store and pick out some new shirts in her favorite color. Let’s be humble enough to ask for honesty, AND humble enough to receive that honesty from our spouse. Remember, your body is not your own!

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