/**/ The Purposeful Wife: Points to Consider When Natural Living is Stressing You Out

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Points to Consider When Natural Living is Stressing You Out

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Heaven knows I'm not the most natural person out there. My in-laws are some of the healthiest and crunchiest people I know. While they've rubbed off on me significantly, I still have a long way to go! I'll never do cloth diapers, we still occasionally eat processed foods, and I think that after two all natural births I've finally come to the conclusion that I would rather give birth with drugs.

Sure,  we juice fresh fruits and veggies several times a week in our crazy serious juicer. I make plenty of our food from scratch, stick with more natural homemade cleaners, and avoid medication unless absolutely necessary. I want my kids to be as healthy as possible, and I'm always trying to move our family in a more natural direction.

With that information, feel free to accept or reject what I'm about to say next. I'm not natural enough for some of you, no doubt.

I can't help but notice all of this angst- articles posted and shared all over the internet using emotionally manipulative scare tactics to freak moms out about the snack food they let their children consume, or the products they use in their homes, or certain mainstream healthcare treatments. I'm sure you've seen them too. Maybe you've let them stress you out. I know I have at times.

I get that there are definite issues with the American food, drugs, and housecleaning industries {probably the understatement of the year}. I really do. We should try to be good stewards of our bodies, and do the best that we can with the resources and information we have. For sure!

But.

Don't let your level of natural or unnatural living stress you out.

Sin has messed everything up. Before there were pesticides and nasty man-made chemicals and genetically modified vegetables and fruits, people had problems with bugs and blight and floods and famine. It makes perfect sense that man's solutions to these problems {all results of the curse subsequent to man's fall into sin in the Garden} have been found to have problems of their own- cancer, poison, etc.

Either way, you can't win. Organic farmers are going to have the same "natural" struggles that farmers experienced before newer food technology, and the new food technology is going to have consequences. Scripture tells us that all of Creation is groaning under the curse and fall {Romans 8:22}, and this is a part of that.

We are all going to die. This too is a part of the fall. I do not advocate crazy abuse or recklessness when it comes to taking care of the one body God gave you to be used for His glory- it would be foolish at best to smoke a pack a day, subsist on McDonalds and ice cream, and never exercise.

The Bible says that whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we ought to do it for the glory of God. This requires our thoughtfulness and responsibility. It also rules out stressing over natural living as a God-honoring option- Christians are to "be anxious for nothing."

If you've placed your faith in the hands of a good and sovereign God, you've got to believe that He has ordained the date and cause of your death, and he is orchestrating even that for His glory and the good of His people. We seek to be faithful and do the best that we can with what we have, but ultimately we are resting in His perfect providence. Resting, not stressing.

I really do get that you are trying to glorify God and be a good steward by being as healthy as you can be. I applaud you. But let's not be too hasty- maybe God hasn't called your Christian sister next door or in the Church nursery to the same level of vigilance.

Maybe using threatening or terrifying language to describe a food concern is more harmful then helpful.

Maybe when we see articles that give us momentary panic attacks, we should take a deep breath, pray about it, and evaluate the information and what we are going to do about it with a calm and quiet spirit. Trusting that this isn't a news flash to the Lord, that He is already taking care of us, and that all of these efforts to be healthier are part of a process. A good process, but one that takes time and is different for everyone.

Maybe we can relax, bask in grace, and extend that same grace to others.

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