January rolls around once again the advertisers for health, fitness, and well-being have been bombarding us with fitness and diet advertisements on every tv channel, social media outlet, and text messages from unknown sources!

These programs will get you highly motivated and feel as though you’ll be twice as muscular, half your size, and able to compete in the summer Olympics by March. Folks, let’s not fall into that trap. God created our bodies and they are amazing, but there is no fitness program, no diet, no well-being program that will work that fast.

When we are born, God created us in his own image - from the dust in the ground. We are born as infants and we grow for 18-20 years before our bodies are for the most part, finished with physical growth. This is not a quick process and He did not create it to be either.

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will find acceptable. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Romans 12:1-2

Take your time to set realistic goals. Your goal for any physical and health change should be for it to become a normal way of life -- not a quick change that will only serve you for a short while. Gradual changes take time to transform your body permanently. Spend as much energy and time with God as you do on these goals. Let Him change the way you think and transform you into the person you are meant to become.

Marcia K. Gibney,

Director of Recreation
Christ United Methodist Church