How To Make Healthy Movement Matter
Movement isn’t about that perfect beach body. It’s about how to get in the habit of moving every day so you can glorify God with a life of service to others.
Are you cringing at the thought of movement? Maybe you are tired of keeping up with kids or from working all day.
Maybe at this point, an attractive body is a distant dream. One too painful to bother working towards.
Most people think that healthy movement equals exercise. Moving your body is about so much more. It’s about thinking clearer, feeling better, but most of all movement matters so you can glorify God in all you do!
Healthy movement is not totally about exercise or fitness in order to look better or lose weight!
Sometimes healthy movement happens to improve how you look and you might lose weight while you’re at it. Mostly you have to eat better to lose weight.
BUT this isn’t about weight loss or looking better. It isn’t looking better physically that is my biggest goal in life.
I want to encourage you to move your body a little more so that you are healthier for God’s glory.
How to Avoid Healthy Moving!
Are you sedentary? Sitting for most of the day and evening as you scroll through Facebook or Instagram to connect with everyone outside your immediate world?
We sit as we drive to the store, we sit as we scroll on our phones, we sit yet again as we relax in the evenings.
I get that because I sit entirely too much of my day. More than I’d like.
Our bodies are made for movement and not for sore knees and aching backs.
I see so many people who have difficulty walking and getting up and around.
If you are a Christ-follower, movement is important for both your brain and your body.
We all have different hereditary and physical limitations but let’s see how much we can include movement in our day.
Free from a Limiting Body
I’m not encouraging you to do a killer workout at the gym.
If that is what you are able to do because you are 20-something, that’s great. What I am encouraging is getting up and moving for a daily walk or getting up from the recliner to move more frequently.
Talking about recliners. They are dangerous because once your feet are elevated, who wants to get up for anything including water!
We are ALL born to move and never created to do a lot of sitting. When we do, it gets more difficult to move as our body stiffens as our bones, muscles, tendons, and fascia are not stretched as often.
Movement Makes You Think Clearer
Do you have a toddler or a teen? If not, you might be chasing after a grandbaby. Wouldn’t it be easier if you weren’t in a perpetual brain fog?
One of the best reasons for taking care of yourself better through movement is that your thinking becomes clearer.
Movement matters because it helps you to interact and communicate better with those you love.
This has been proven over and over but what if your purpose was to glorify God in all that you say and do?
What if it helped you to think clearer so your toddler or teen didn’t manipulate circles around you because you were in a brain fog?
Movement matters!
How You Think About Your Body Matters
Most women think negatively about their bodies even if they are beautiful.
Too often women are dissatisfied with their body wishing for a shorter nose, bigger eyes, different color hair, and they basically don’t accept who God created them to be. (Psalm 139:16)
God created you as a beautiful daughter of the King no matter if you’re a tiny petite woman or if you could lose quite a bit of weight.
Being emotionally healthy on the inside is far more important to God than your clothing size.
It is your soul that will be around eternally either in heaven or in hell.
Your body is a temple. It’s temporary while you are living on this earth.
So how come we get so hung up on our body as if that is the real YOU?! We think and act as if our body is going to heaven with us.
We act like we need to get our body in shape in order to live eternally in a size 6!
That’s a LIE and one that has skewed my thinking too!
Like I said, you are special and a daughter of the King!
Eating Better Helps Movement
But being a smaller size sure would help matters while you are here, right?
That’s why eating better helps movement. Actually, did you know that if you get more movement into your day, without eating better, you are not likely to lose weight?
Yep, that’s too true!
I am not going to tell you how to eat better but I am doing the Faithful Finish Lines program and they cover all that in the course.
Also important to realize is that what works for one woman might not what works for another.
Movement Matters for God’s Glory
We might move less in our culture than our great grandparents who farmed the land. Our lives just don’t include the lifestyle that once was prevalent.
We might move less, but movement still matters because it’s the way God created us to be.
So it isn’t whether or not you should move but how you should include movement into your day.
If you have been very sedentary, you won’t be able to immediately jump into a workout. Maybe taking a very short walk would be a gentle way to begin.
Simply make it your goal to start including movement so that you feel better for God’s glory.
What kind of movement could you include?
If you have hung with me this far, I am going to give you some ideas on ways to increase your movement. Being strong and healthy really has its benefits because along with feeling great, you will likely improve your immune system.
- Make your bed! Sounds crazy but you’ll walk around your bed getting everything put back together. Meanwhile, your metabolism will get moving!
- Take walks every day! I take my dog for a walk 3-5 times each day.
- Do a 4-minute mini-workout! These short bursts are phenomenal and effective!
Movement matters and that’s why I am loving Faithful Fitness. The devotionals that go along with each workout help you focus on God while you are moving for His glory.
