Why Natural Living Matters to Me

Jul 7, 2011 by Katie

It was two summers ago that I became interested in living a more natural life.  At first it was incredibly overwhelming and intimidating. At the time I was on my summer break from teaching high school freshmen about world geography.  My sister-in-law was dipping her big toe into the realm of natural living and I couldn’t decide if I thought she was crazy or if I wanted to join her.

Clearly I joined her, but it wasn’t an overnight transformation.  A blog that made a tremendous difference in my life—the one I will always attribute to helping me think biblically about the world of living naturally—and one that I would recommend to anyone, is Passionate Homemaking.  Lindsey (the author) is so balanced in her convictions and so helpful in her explanations.  It wasn’t long before I was searching her blog systematically and copying and pasting her ideas and recipes to make my own natural living binder.

Fast forward two years: my natural living binder has become a homemaking binder and if I ever lose it I think I would be resigned to sitting on the floor crying because I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.  (Do you remember the Frog and Toad story where Toad loses his list?  Yea.  That’s me.)

But I digress . . . After nine months of switching to whole grains, raw milk, and baking soda for just about everything, I reached the end of the road, or so it seemed.  I was working full time, three months pregnant with all-day sickness (why is it called “morning” sickness, anyway?) and the next step in my natural living journey involved soaking grains and making my own bread (both of which even at that point seemed ridiculous). I had to take a break from growing in the area of natural living.

This time off was exactly what I needed.  It gave me time to ponder the reason I was attempting to live a more natural life in the first place. Was it for my husband?  For myself?  For my sister-in-law?  For the Lord?  For the ladies at my church who also live naturally?  What was my motive behind natural living and was it really that important to me? Needless to say, the answer became, “Yes!  Natural living is important to me!”  A year ago, though, the answer would have been, “No . . . I’m trying to live naturally to impress others.”

The Lord, I believe, made it so that I just didn’t have the time or energy to continue in my efforts towards natural living so that He could show me my true motive in wanting a natural life to begin with.  As I began working through the sin in my heart and searching the Scriptures He gave me a freedom from others’ approval that I had never known.  In addition, he gave me a precious, tiny baby boy and I desperately wanted to keep him as pure and healthy as possible.  At the same time He gave me the time and energy to continue learning about natural living—but this time, with a whole new motive:

Today, natural living matters to me because I care about what goes into and onto my body and the bodies of my family.

Natural living matters to me because I want to be a good steward of my resources: my time, energy, money, land, home, body, and talents.

Natural living matters to me because I love the way it feels to know without a doubt that the clothes we’re wearing, the food we’re eating, the lotion we’re using (the list goes on and on), are healthy for us—I don’t even have to worry about my son getting into some toxic bottle of nasty because it doesn’t exist in our home.

Natural living matters to me because the more I learn about what is put in many store bought cleaning agents and food the more I believe in the importance of an alternative.

But most of all and more importantly than anything else natural living matters to me because I truly believe that it matters to my Lord.

“Whaaaaaat!?  Did she just say that Jesus cares about whether we are healthy or not!?!?!?!”  I DID!  I did say that!

First, let me remind you of the need for balance in our lives.  It is wrong, of course, to make natural living an idol (stay tuned for a post about that in a few months). I would never want anyone to become so obsessed—so absorbed, or so involved—with living naturally that it takes away their time, talent, or treasure from the Lord or His purposes for their life.  And neither would He, for that matter.

However, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” In context Paul is talking about sexual immorality, but I believe we can look at these two verses as a general principle: we are to take care of our bodies.  Well known commentator, Matthew Henry, says about these verses, “our bodies were made for God, they were purchased for him, he inhabits and occupies them by his Spirit.  They have been redeemed from merited sacrifice of Christ.  The temple of the Holy Ghost must be kept holy.  Our body must be kept fit for his use and residence.” A slothful, gluttonous, it’s-my-body-and-I’ll-do-with-it-what-I-want attitude is not keeping it fit for His use!  We are to care for our bodies—we are to be healthy.

The important thing to remember is the reason we glorify God in our bodies.  To be beautiful?  To feel good?  Simply because we’re told to?  No!  It’s because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit!  He is in us!  He is a gift from God!  Our bodies are not our own!  We have been bought with a price! Sweet, sweet Jesus died for us!  What amazing grace!—that is the motivation behind glorifying God with my body.  That is the motivation behind natural living.  And that is why natural living matters to me.

As Katie has studied and learned more and more about what it means to be a godly woman, she has become passionate about cultivating her home, the health of her family, and her heart for the Lord. Through these pursuits, she has begun to learn about living a more natural life. Her husband, her son, and she live north of Houston where they attempt a modern-day natural lifestyle, joyfully serve at their church, run a photography business, and enjoy just spending time with each other. You can find more tips for living a natural lifestyle while loving Jesus every step of the way at homehealthheart.wordpress.com.

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