What do you pay more attention to during the day—God or the body?
Hmmm…I mean honestly…count the minutes, the hours that are absorbed by body-thoughts versus God-thoughts.
The cleaning, bathing, grooming, feeding, eating, clothing, sleeping, stretching minutes and hours are the obvious time consumers to put at the top of the list. But add on the aching, pleasuring, worrying and fearing minutes too. They are body-centered. It all probably adds up to several hours when you’re through counting.
Then tally the God-minutes you set aside. The time occupied in devoted prayer, humble listening to the voice of wisdom, the striving moments to be more spiritually minded, and the conscious acts of love you engage.
Are you leading a body-centered life or a God-centered life? Hopefully the latter! The results are much better.
To be spiritually minded is to take best care of the body.
To focus on body, to the exclusion of God, is to ignore the spiritual needs of health and deprive the body of the best possible influence—the divine influence.
God is the source of genuine health. Be sure the Source of all that truly makes you happy and healthy is the center of your dominant attention!
Wow! A lightbulb switched on! Thank you! Love “To be spiritually minded is to take best care of the body.” So so SO helpful for this guidance today! Just exactly the reminder I need! Best to you!
Great wake up call, Evan! A little startling, actually, to think honestly about this question. Playing golf today and that takes several hours. Guess I better pray my way through the experience. Recently I did that, thinking carefully about reflecting God’s power, strength, rhythm, etc. and prayed for others in between shots. It was the best game of my life. As we go through the “rituals” of body care (bathing, dressing,etc.) we can focus our attention on God, even as we take care of the essentials! Not just mindlessly attending to body, but keeping thought anchored in God constantly. This blog will go into my spiritual archive. Thank you!
Thank you Evan! What perfect timing. On my way to work this morning I was feeling very body centric and wondering how to change that. You have helped me answer that. Thanks!
What a bolt this this gave me,….thoughts all pointing to the body. Subconsciously how many minutes we spend on thinking about ourselves….the way we look the way we feel and comparing the body of the past to the body of today!! It is indeed a wake-up call and really helped me. Thanks a lot Evan.
One of the things I love about Christian Science nursing is that it teaches us how to keep thought stayed on God and God’s care for His/Her ideas—attending to the needs for cleansing, nourishing, resting, activating thought while caring for the human body. As God’s expression/offspring we’re always one with God and this may be reflected increasingly in our understanding of Mind’s care for the human body as Mrs Eddy discusses in her textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Thanks for this blog, Evan. It’s inspiring me to learn and practice being more God-centered and God-focused while meeting the legitimate demands of each day.
Thank you for these thoughts. I’m the sole carer for a close relative who has chosen medical care for a serious health issue, and am finding my thoughts revolving around mortal mind care, medication, prognosis etc. It’s so easy to forget the truth of being when the loved one has chosen to accept regular medical care. It reminds me to keep my own thoughts centred on the spiritual, no matter what else seems to be going on in the human experience. Your message has made me aware of how many minutes I’m involved with a body centred life, rather than a God centred life. Thank you Evan.
Wonderful! Thank you!
Just a huge thank you!!!!!
Wow Evan, this article has sent a blast of God’s warming Love right into my conciousness and the effect has warmed my body as well, as we experience this wintertime COLD!!! Thank you again, a “keeper” for sure!!!!
CayDee
In a similar vein, I remember being truly startled when I asked myself the question, how much of my daily thought is centered on me? What am I thinking now? What do I want? How am I feeling? What’s my opinion? What are they thinking about me? That kind of thinking is more opaque than a physical body and just as unsatisfying. What a great thing to exchange for God centered freedom and infinite possibilities.
What Il earned this from a CS friend years ago you have just reiterated. It never hurts to be reminded. It keeps thought fresh. When I am bathing I thinking about the spiritual baptism or the stirred up river cleansing itself. When I am brushing my teeth I think about it is what comes out of one’s mouth that defiles one. When I dress I think about putting on armor…the breastplate of hope and love, the helmet of truth and salvation. And when I am eating…well, you get the idea. When that is done I speak clearly to the body, ” You have been washed, clothed, groomed, fed. There will be no complaints from you today. And I am done with you now.”
I’d love to stop concentrating on so much “me” thinking. I spend way too much time absorbed in how I look. I saw the movie “Her” recently and though Thaddeus is very self absorbed I found it interesting that he fell in love with a voice, not a body, face, etc. I’ve been thinking about this all week. I loved Pam’s morning routine. I need to do more of this and less fixating on how I look! Thanks for the warning!
Thanks so very much Evan for this reminder of keeping thought close to God. I have noticed that when I do this, the day passes joyously and no problems faced.
Thank-you Evan for this thought-provoking blog; and Pam for sharing!
I loved what Pam wrote. It’s so important to exchange things into thoughts, but never easy to do. What a reminder to do each day
When I moved from a sophisticated city to a rural area I dropped off much attention to hair, makeup, always being “properly” dressed before even a trip to the grocery store. No more regular trips to the car wash, just leave it out in the regular rains. Not so hyper, more friendly. more sharing.
The CS ladies used to call the body “my doll”. Bathe it, feed it, put it to bed, etc.
Wow – bulls-eye!
I believe we all do this?
listed
Bill G