You are Priceless … You are God’s Holy Temple
Note: Each worship program will coordinate with the monthly birthstone, their meaning, and their color to help with decorating ideas. Each birth stone meaning is linked to our identity in Christ.
September Birthstone: Sapphire, Color: Dark Blue, Meaning: Purity
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:19–20
Activity
One of the ways mental and physical health professionals talk about caring for ourselves is using the “4 Pillars of Health” model. This idea breaks how we care for ourselves into four main categories:
- A Healthy Diet
- Activity
- Sleep
- Connection to others (This one can also be called “mental health care or stress management).
The idea is that when we break down caring for ourselves into categories, it might be less overwhelming. It helps us to recognize where we might need the most help. For instance, some people have good sleep habits, but are not good at exercise. Or, some might be good at diet, but don’t have strong, healthy relationships. When we start to look at these categories, they all speak to how God designed us and how we can work to be holy.
Ways to Make the 4 Pillars Personal
- Create a Four Pillars of Health Worksheet – Rest, Nutrition, Movement and Connection. (For additional help see the websites listed below.) Invite the women to jot down ideas in the worksheet under each category. Are these things that work, or would like to start one of them. Or why are some areas harder than others? Ask the women to give themselves an initial “rating” on how she thinks she’s doing in each area.
- If you have a large group, divide into groups of 3 or 4. If you have a smaller group, brainstorm using a whiteboard. Talk about why these categories would work in helping with overall health. What barriers are in each category? If you have Internet access, look up some YouTube videos on each of the categories. Spend extra time on the “connection to others” category. Discuss how part of holy living is living in connection with God’s people. How can we help each other in practical holiness? How prayer and fellowship are part of God’s plan for connection and holy living. Look up some basic information on the Spiritual Disciplines and the role they would play in the 4 Pillars of Health.
- End the activity by asking each of the women to pick one pillar to work on over the remainder of the year. Ask them to list 4 things they could do to improve in one category. Encourage them to think small and work on building new habits. If you point out how habits work, it will be encouraging. For example, a 5-minute walk per day doesn’t sound like a lot, but over 120 days, it is 20 hours of walking.
- Close your time by going back to the discussion about creation and the Scripture. Give the women a sapphire that she could keep by her bed as a reminder to be holy or pure, or how God cares about His creation, and we are all beautiful. (Check Amazon.com or craft stores for faux sapphires.)
Transitions
For a lot of people September is a month of transitions. Those with kids transition from summer break to back to school. Others may be finishing up vacations. Those who live in places with definite seasons may experience their first chill in the air and start thinking about finding the snow tires. Maybe September even ushers in the first thoughts about the holiday season, plans for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year.
One of the beautiful transitions in September in a lot of places is the leaves turning from green to a variety of deep, vibrant colors—red, orange, and dark brown. In other places, the weather may not shift as much, but maybe the breeze blowing off the ocean shifts and the consistency of the waves is a comfort. As we approach fall,it makes sense that the jewel chosen to represent September is the sapphire—a jewel that is a deep blue color of the ocean. This jewel represents purity. One of our most constant reminders of purity is creation. From nothing God created oceans that keep moving, trees that know when summer is over, and fall begins. Creation is one of the best, constant visual reminders that the God who created all of it is holy and wants us to be holy as well.
Holiness and purity are important terms in the Bible, but can be challenging for us, especially if we have a background that wasn’t either of those things. But most simply stated, holiness means “separate” or “different.” God is different and once we declare that we belong to Him by accepting Jesus as our Savior, He wants us to be different as well. We read in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So, you must honor God with your body.”
Most of us want to honor God with our bodies. We want to be healthy and take care of what He gave us. But life gets in the way, and we don’t take care of our bodies the way we should. We’re so fortunate that God, in His grace, keeps loving us no matter what shape we are in. However, as women of God seeking to become more and more like Jesus, we can choose to take steps that help us take better care of our bodies, God’s temples. In this way, we start to live out holiness. This idea is that we are different because of who we belong to.
September is such a good time to review how we are caring for our bodies and take steps to get better. Maybe we get back to a simpler routine, or maybe we’re looking ahead to the New Year and think we can get a head start on some of our goal. By breaking things down, we can find practical ways to be holy in how we care for our bodies.
Helpful resources:
https://www.nbihealth.com/the-four-pillars-of-health/
