Forever Young

Mirrors don't lie.

Whether it's that first grey hair or the growing waistline, we don't want to believe what we see. The billion dollar industry of fitness is too often our futile attempt to keep us looking young in the name of being fit. The image seems to be as important, if not more so, than keeping ourselves healthy. The fear seems to be that the older we get the less fulfilling life will be.

"Let's desperately fight the inevitable."

Look around and see how style and appearance have become SO important to us. Look as well how it has crept into our marriages. Wives wanting to feel good about their appearance yet sometimes having an underlying fear that the competition is winning. Husbands wearing outfits that would work better in a circus than on the street!

Don't get me wrong. We need to take better care of ourselves than we do. Our eating habits and lack of exercise have produced some embarrassing people! Yet as in so many situations the issue is more about motives than outcomes. Why do I want to take better care of myself - really? Too often, if I'm honest, it's more about me than my spouse or my God. I just want to feel good about myself. We all want that but in the end because of the effects of sin we all loose because we all die.

So what's the purpose of "staying fit?" As I get older I realize even more that I want to get the most out of this life physically and spiritually to prepare me for eternal life. I want to grow through every season of life with my wife and be able to see how God has been faithful to us in every way. I want to take care of my body as a vessel of the Spirit of Jesus so He might more fully be seen in me. I want my wife to be attracted to me for all the right reasons.

I also want to look into the mirror of God's law more than the mirror in my bathroom. I want to spiritually exercise so I can truly be a doer of the word and not a hearer only. "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like." James 1:23,24

Let's look good so that Jesus looks good. Let's care how we look as a couple for all the right reasons. May Jesus be exercised in you both today and may the world be attracted to you because of the Christ who is in you.