What does it mean to be comfortable in your own skin?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does that look like? I recently asked these questions to my youth Sabbath school class. We briefly remembered awkward adolescent stages of our lives in which we weren\u2019t so comfortable and then pondered its definition in the word and in the lives of people we know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the definitions the class threw out were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One shared how an old friend had said to her, \u201cYou\u2019re not the old \u2018you\u2019 anymore and I don\u2019t like it\u2026\u201d Comments like that could potentially make one question themselves What would you say if someone asked you the question, \u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Then I asked the class, \u201cDo you know someone who you would describe as comfortable in their own skin? How do you feel about them? Does someone who is comfortable with themselves encourage others to feel comfortable around them? How do they pull it off?\u201d The answer that stuck out to me was, \u201cThey know who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What would you say if someone asked you the question, \u201cWho are you?\u201d Ask someone off the street in the city where I\u2019ve worked and you\u2019d probably hear something like\u2014I\u2019m gay, I\u2019m straight or I\u2019m transgender in the first few sentences of their answer. Our society uses sexuality to identify or define \u201cwho I am.\u201d But is my sexuality who I am? Or is it what I am? There is a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bible provides definition of who we are by the Creator\u2019s intent when He designed humanity. God said, \u201cLet Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion\u2026 So God created man in His own<\/em> image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Genesis 1:26-27). It is after this statement of intent of His creation of man that He then blesses them and gives them their first sex education class, \u201cbe fruitful and multiply.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a progressive order here and it would be good for us not to miss it. According to these verses I am an image bearer, made in the image of God. That is who I am according to God\u2019s word. If I want to understand who I am by design, I need to know something about the original image. \u201cLet us\u2026\u201d God is three distinct beings that are so intimately connected, they are one. In this sense God is wholistic. God is and always has been love, existing in this triune relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am a wholistic creature composed of three entities: mind, body, and soul. I am a social being designed to be an expression of love. Who are you? You are mind, body, soul, a coalescence of mental, spiritual, and physical. You are an indivisible being, a being that cannot segregate aspects of yourself from another part. You are an image bearer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I glorify God in my body or if I don\u2019t, it is affecting my ability to glorify God in my spirit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I think this is what Paul is communicating when he wrote, \u201cFoods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.\u2026 Do you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them<\/em> members of a harlot? \u2026Or do you not know he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her<\/em>? \u2026 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him<\/em>\u201d (1 Corinthians 6:13, 15-17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n What these verses communicate to me is that when God destroys individuals for their spiritual decision, the physical body will also be destroyed. If I glorify God in my body or if I don\u2019t, it is affecting my ability to glorify God in my spirit. You can\u2019t just be physically joined to a harlot and it not impact other facets of who you are. You can say food is for the stomach and the stomach for food (as if it is an isolated case from the rest of who you are). You can say it\u2019s just this, but it\u2019s more than that. It\u2019s bigger than that. You are indivisible. Body, mind, and spirit are all connected. And God\u2019s original intention was that we would be indivisible from Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOr do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who<\/em> is in you\u2026 and you are not your own? \u2026for you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body\u201d (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is in the context of this fact of our indivisibleness that our health message has the fullest expression of its existence. You see, building ourselves up spiritually has the capacity to infuse health into our physical being. Likewise, supporting our physical health just from its sheer relationship to the other two aspects of who you are is strengthening to mind and spirit. It\u2019s how we were designed and is just who we are. Living in harmony with this reality of your design is the ultimate way to truly experience being an image bearer. Maybe those teenagers had it right. Being comfortable in your own skin is connected to knowing who you are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does it mean to be comfortable in your own skin? What does that look like? 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