Firming Lotion...For Real?

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled...." 1 Peter 1:13a

A few weeks back, my Mom (grandmother of the bride) and I (mother of the bride) were discussing various self-tanning products...in preparation for the upcoming Big Day!!! I told Mama that I'd had good experience with Jergen's "Natural Glow" in the past and recommended that she try it. Well, Mama called from the store. She found a bargain and was buying some for both of us. And not only was it a sunless tanner, but it was also a "firming" lotion!!! Now that's something to get excited about! You see, I had really great intentions of taking off a pound (or a few) and toning up before the wedding by getting back into the routine of walking in my neighborhood...but somehow that just didn't happen. The possibility of tan, firm arms and legs (minus the time and energy of exercise) sounded fabulous!! I couldn't wait to get that lotion!

I have to admit, over the next few days, as I waited to get the lotion I thought about it fairly often. Was it For Real? Could a lotion really "firm"? And all I had to do was to rub it on? (Now, just in case you are laughing at me and thinking you might like to sell me some property in the middle of a swamp...just indulge my positive thinking!!)

I finally got my lotion. I was anxious to read about the promises held within! To my dismay, it said, "Clinically proven to firm skin." Let me just say that I don't think that any amount of skin firming is going to make any difference in those unsightly bumpy,bulges just above my knees and that baggage hanging from under my upper arms! I really know better than to think that you can get those kinds of results without the work. Don't you?

That prompted me to think about our spiritual fitness and firmness. Do we think that we can go to church for our weekly slathering of holiness...spending a few minutes worshipping, listening and maybe even taking notes during a really good sermon, putting a little money in the offering plate... and look the way God intends for us to look or live the way He intends for us to live? Of course not. We must take action. We must be self-controlled and self-disciplined...actually I prefer God-controlled and God-disciplined...as my self is far too incapable.

Let's determine to seek Him deliberately, whole-heartedly, and actively. Let's exercise our minds in His Word. Let's firm up those memory muscles. Let's bend the knee in prayer. Let's pursue avenues of active service for Him.

"Therefore, I urge you, [sisters], in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies [and your minds] as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God." Romans 12:1

Lord, draw us to Yourself. Help us to actively pursue You. Make us hunger and thirst for Your Word. Make us faithful in prayer. Prompt us to action on Your behalf. And Lord, help us, too, to care for these bodies, these places where Your very Spirit resides. Help us to treat them as the temples that they are. For You.