When we look in the mirror, what do we see?  I cannot speak for anyone else.  I can only speak for me.  That question gave me cause to pause because I do not like to look at myself in the mirror.   I will look at my face, but I do not like to look at my body.   Someone gave me a challenge to look into a mirror at myself and tell myself how much I love myself.  Unfortunately, the first time I tried that exercise, I could not do it.  I could not do it because all I could see was my fat cheeks and my gigantic body.  Instead of saying positive affirmations, a whole bunch of negative and critical stuff came out.  I was a little surprised by my reaction because I thought that had rid myself of all of that negative self-talk, but that definitely was not the case.  It is a lot better than it used to be, but I still have some work to do in that area.

I was doing some research on the Internet, and I ran across a quote from Laura Silva.  She said:  “We are spiritual beings living a temporal existence.”  When I read that, a light bulb came on within me.  When I read that quote, I realized that when I looked in the mirror, I only saw myself from a physical stand point.  When I looked at my physical body, I was being reminded of all of the pain, hurt, sorrow, embarrassment, and humiliation that I had experienced throughout my life.  I was not looking at myself as a spiritual being.  My physical body is critical to my eternal progression because my body and my spirit together make up my soul.  But ultimately, my body is a shell that houses our spirit.  My body is not who I am.  My body was created to help my spirit accomplish the goals that have been set forth for me to do while I am here on this earth.  The spirit within my body is the Real ME.  It is the spirit child of a perfect, loving, powerful, and all-knowing Father, and He knows who I truly am and what my true potential is.

The choices that we make in relationship to how we treat our bodies will affect our eternal progression.  When we are severely overweight, the excess mass of our body makes us feel as if we are moving in slow motion.  It is harder to get out of bed, take a shower and put your clothes and shoes on.  Just doing these basic activities are extremely taxing.  Now, add on, getting in and out of the car, walking on flat surfaces or up and down stairs and even going grocery shopping.  Carrying around all of the excess weight makes us very tired.  We don’t want to go anywhere or do anything unless it is necessary.  How can we serve others or help build the Kingdom of God if we are tired all of the time?  All of these things that I just mentioned help in slowing down our spiritual progression.  When one gets to this point, their focus is not on spiritual things any more.  The focus shifts to temporal satisfaction, and that is exactly where Satan wants us.  When we are living like this, we are living is his world where he is in control.  We are the puppets and he is the puppet master pulling all of the strings.

It is time to snip those strings and start making good choices that will benefit our lives.  I have lived in the shadowlands for far too long, by my eyes are wide open now.  My perspective is totally different.  When I look in the mirror now, I see a spiritual being that has been through many trials on this earth, but I realize that those trials do not define me; they refine me.  Trials are put into place to help us to become  stronger if we accept them for what they are; a tool for spiritual growth.  When trials come our way, and instead of facing them head on, we revert to eating food and abusing our bodies, we choose to make ourselves available to the buffetings of Satan.  Let’s take back the power that we have given him and use that power to start taking care of ourselves and fortifying ourselves spiritually.

Kyeni