The Weekly Encourager – August 19, 2015 – The Ideal Body

I've been thinking about the ideal body. You could say that the Body is on my Mind! In Sunday's sermon, Pastor Paul Wolfe used Psalm 139 “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” as a reminder that the people of God are receivers before we can be givers. Our bodies are a gift from the Lord, to be used wisely. For an art quilt, I needed to draw a man's body, then translate that into fabric. Researching how to draw a man's body yielded some interesting results. There were several sites showing how to divide the figure into 8 equal parts, with the head being 1/8 of the total height and all else proceeding from that unit of measure. One resource, however, compared the correct proportions for four men: normal, idealistic, fashion, and heroic (larger than life!).

Next I studied a photo essay of top athletes from around the world, all dressed alike in the same black swimsuits, showing the very wide range of body types that are ideal for particular sports. The photographer shows the tall and thin bodies right next to the short and thick ones. Remember, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” You say, I'm not cut out for sports? Well, that's just wrong. God didn't design a single body type to sit around all day. Every physique you can imagine has at least one sport or activity for which it is ideally suited!  For best results, don't try to make a runner out of a wrestler, or a high jumper out of a jockey. Study your (or your child's) body type to get clues about which sport might be best, and find a way to make that happen.

Yesterday I read a blog post about encouraging young people to exercise. In “Ten Things I Want My Daughter to Know About Working Out,” Author Brynn Harrington tells why we shouldn't try to motivate young girls to exercise by saying how good they need to look in a certain dress. Exercise should be associated with joy and achievement, rather than chore and punishment. We motivate our children to embrace lifelong fitness by showing that physical strength has its own rewards. We feel good when we move our bodies, and fitness opens many doors that would be closed to us otherwise.

A friend and I were talking about middle and high school gym class, and how horrible it was back in the day. I agreed with him that if those gym classes had been my only exposure to physical exercise, I might hate it. How well I remember the shame of being the last chosen for any team, the slowest runner on the track, the weakest girl on pull-ups! Not to mention the embarrassment of being ridiculed by the instructor in class and the other girls in the locker room! Thank God I had ballet all through school. Here was a way to build my strength and agility with a real honest sweat-producing workout which made me feel wonderful! It didn't hurt my looks either, but that was not my main motivation for doing it. It was about finding a happy place where I could be good at something physical. I believe there's a happy place for each of us; we just have to find it.

Keeping fit can be fun, and we need to show our students how. Children usually follow our example, not our advice. Are we showing them how satisfying it is to keep our own bodies strong? We want them to be empowered, not coward. I recently read this striking thought: “Be who you needed when you were younger.” I think it applies here. What do kids really need from us now? They need to know that growing and improving and accomplishing is good stewardship of what God has given us, whether it's our hearts, minds, or bodies.

What is the ideal body? The ideal body is one that's being used to grow in grace, according to God's design and giving God the glory.

God is faithful,
j

Sermon: “David's Prayer, Part 2: David Knows the People of God” by Paul Wolfe, New Hope Presbyterian Church, 8/16/15, http://newhopefairfax.org/resources/sermons-to-hear
I learned about Howard Schatz’s Athlete series (and his book by that name) from a post on http://www.boredpanda.com/athlete-body-types-comparison-howard-schatz/
“Ten Things I Want My Daughter to Know About Working Out,” by Brynn Harrington. http://wellfesto.com/2013/11/19/10-things-i-want-my-daughter-to-know-about-working-out/
Quotation: “Be who you needed when you were younger.” by Glennon Doyle Melton. http://momastery.com/momasterys-book-picks/