(To go back for a full refresher, read "The Sinister Side of Self-Care," and "How to REALLY Take Care of Yourself, Part 1.")
But after nourishing ourselves with the manna of wisdom and service, what about actual, physical things we can be doing to care for ourselves during these especially demanding seasons of life?
Let's tackle just one thing today: food.
Eat Well.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I get it. First of all, everyone everywhere has a word of advice on how and what you should be eating, and second of all, is it really THAT big of a deal?
Simply put? Yes, it really is. God made you a body. You don't just have a body, but you are a body, as much as you are a soul and a mind and a spirit. As much as we want to, we can't compartmentalize our created selves. Adam and Eve were created in the Garden as whole people, with bodies, and the separation of body and soul in the ripping of death is the result of the Fall, and our selves will be restored to wholeness one day. Jesus himself came as God in FLESH, which is far from insignificant, and when he resurrects us, we will be resurrected into glorified manifestations of our current bodies. Actual bodies, not just some kind of ethereal, see-through, holographic something-or-others. Real bodies to live on the real new earth. Our actual, physical, incarnate bodies matter to God. So how you treat and feed and care for your body really matters. (I really could go on and on about this, but I'll stop here for now.)
So let's talk about how to feed these precious bodies. Often, in the world of "self-care-self-care-self-self-self!" people will fall into one of two ditches when it comes to food: over-indulgence and utilitarianism.
Over-indulgence. The first camp is often manifested in emotional eating: "I'm stressed, so I'm going to go grab a huge mocha-frappe-whatsit-whatsit to make me feel better." This really is fine every once in a while - God made food to taste good, and to be a comfort, and even a significant daily reminder of his goodness to us. But a constant stream of all the sugar and caffeine in the stuff we gravitate toward literally robs our bodies of the things we need in order to do life's most important work. Our nutritionally deficient lifestyles steal from our health - so we end up feeling more stressed, more on edge, more exhausted, less capable, less vibrant. A constant diet of this garbage is not self-care. It's simply self-destruction that tastes good.
I only say this as someone who is naturally geared toward high-sugar, stress-induced emotional eating. If this is the camp you fall into, I get it, I really, really do. But I've truly seen the dark side of living like this, and after years of comforting myself through the physical and emotional demands of early motherhood with foods that didn't nourish me, but rather stole from my health, I experienced entire years of abundance and joy and fruitfulness taken from me in the health crash that came as a result. I was killing myself in the name of comfort and indulgence (which, in the end, wasn't all that comforting). I can tell you food absolutely affects our physical and emotional lives, which in turn affect our relational and spiritual lives. God never meant us to live this way. Self-discipline in our eating is a profound form of self-care.
Okay, for the other ditch: utilitarianism. I've fallen into this ditch myself, too. Food is medicine, yes. But it's not only medicine; it's also food. And food was made to be pleasing and enjoyable and comforting, not just to fill bellies. ("He did not leave himself without a witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." Acts 14:17).
We were never meant to be slaves to our nutrition, and our pet diet plan will never actually save us from the ravages of sin and death. We can eat paleo or plant-based or vegan or whatever, and we will still get sick. We will absolutely still die. Our physical food is not our salvation. We act as though the most important health worth chasing is our physical health, and trade our spiritual freedom in the process.
I personally spent quite a bit of time enslaved to "What-If Eating" ("What if my kids are exposed to pesticides and get cancer? What if our grains aren't all properly prepared and we get cavities and bone disease? What if they eat sugar and get wired and their immune system is suppressed and they get sick? What if I mess up their health? What if I could have prevented some kind of illness? What if other moms don't think we eat healthy enough?") One verse I found to be extremely helpful in battling this difficult snare was Romans 14:17-18: "For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men." My eyes need to be focused more on pursuing righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit than on added sugars and USDA labels and numbers on a scale and what Crunchy Church Mom thinks of me. I need to enjoy food as a picture of the way I enjoy Christ.
We are a free people, ready and able to feast when the time comes to feast. We need to be careful that we're not sacrificing our meals and bodies to the gods of Food Morality and Diet Righteousness. God declared it all clean, and who are we to declare otherwise? (Acts 10:15) Training ourselves away from self-righteousness and self-salvation through food is a profound form of self-care.
This post really could have been so much longer. For as much as the world talks about how and what we eat, the Bible somehow talks about it even more. If there's one thing God never stops talking about, it's food. He cares about it, because he cares about us. Let's daily eat to nourish ourselves, and intentionally feast when it's time to celebrate. It seems so basic, but the balance can be so hard to wrap our minds around. Learning to discern the time and season for each is truly self-care.
