Hydrating your spirit.

I sit today and stare at my half full glass of water (I am quite the optimist) and wonder about hydration. I got up this morning and had breakfast that included a glass of water, had one more glass of water, and went to the beach for a walk. When I returned, I again had a glass of water which I am now enjoying. I was reading my Bible for the day when it spoke of God as living water. I was thinking about that today since water is a huge part of my day. I am one of those people who doesn't drink anything but water and that is really good for me with my bad kidneys. Water has been on my mind today and all of the benefits that it gives me and how that compares to God!

Water is known to do quite a few things for the body. Some of these are:

• Improves your energy level
• Increases your mental and physical performance
• Removes toxins and waste products from your body
• Keeps skin healthy and glowing
• Helps you lose weight
• Reduces headaches and dizziness
• Allows for proper digestion

Now I am going to go my normal route and completely take this knowledge a step further. If God is referred to as living water...why don't we look into these benefits and relate them to our spiritual life. This is how I believe this corresponds to actual water!

1. Improves your energy level: I believe that spending time with the Lord every day helps you feel energic about living in this world. Without spending daily time with God, it's hard to keep on task and you feel very lethargic about living in this fallen world.

2. Increases your mental and physical performance: This is so true. Our thought life and physical obedience to God comes with drinking of Him daily. This is imperative as we try to beat the millions of mental and physical temptations surrounding us.

3. Removes toxins and waste products from your body: I think this one is obvious in the removal and forgiveness of sin. What bigger toxin can you think of?

4. Keeps skin healthy and glowing: Our skin is our outer shell. In our walk, I believe this is referring to the fruits of the spirit that either are healthy and glowing or rotten and stinky. With God, our fruit (or skin) is always healthy and glowing.

5. Helps you lose weight: This one made me think about those burdens that we carry every day around with us. God is faithful to take our burdens upon himself if we will just allow him to have them and they aren't so heavy for us..therefore we lose weight.

6. Reduce headaches and dizziness: How often have you felt spiritually dizzy and a brief moment with the Lord can get you grounded yet again. It's easy to get a big headache from trying to live the Christian life here on Earth but with time with the Lord, the headache is doable.

7. Allows for proper digestion: In the spiritual realm, our food is considered the word of God. Time with the Lord can help us to digest the scriptures properly and learn how to take them in. With just a little time with God, we will be able to take large portions of the gospel and apply it to life properly just like eating a meal and having it go to the parts of the body it needs to successfully.

It's funny how this water thing is a direct mirror of God's place in our life. As I go to fill up my glass again so I have all these benefits of actual H2O, don't forget to fill up your cup today!

Update on me: I have been exercising faithfully again and have had a very faithful and good morning. I woke up, ate breakfast, took my shot, and went for a walk. I feel like I am starting to get a grasp on things. I studied for the GRE last night on Analogies and I would appreciate all of the prayers you can send my way. Hoping to get more studying done today and think through some essays for applications. Have a great day everyone and God bless you all!

~Erica~