Can you be a Christian and crunchy? Do faith and natural living really go hand in hand?
These are some questions I’ve been thinking about in terms of how I want to focus my blog over this coming year.
I’ve been thinking for awhile about what I wanted the focus of my blog to be. I know I want to write about natural living and how to do it in a way that is neither overly complicated nor expensive.
However, I have kept going back and forth over whether or not to make my faith more of a part of my blog.
I’ve been afraid that if I talked about my faith, that would “scare” away moms who don’t have the same beliefs as me.
But what I’ve come to realize that there are lots of us that care about both God and the earth. Just because we want to live a more “green” life doesn’t mean the earth is the only thing we care about.
There are lots of connections between living as God calls us to live and wanting to make the best of the resources He gives us through the earth.
In this post, I’m going to go into some of those intersections bet and why I feel that making a home that is both more natural and more Christ-focused is such a good combination.
Disclaimer: I don’t mean this post to make it sound like not doing “natural living” things such as buying local, eating organic, or trying to reduce waste makes you un-Christian. We each do what we feel is right for us and our families. Instead, I wrote this post because I do think that faith and natural living can fit together very well in our lives.
Both teach us to slow down to focus on what really matters
Whether you’re cooking from scratch or sitting down to study a particular Bible passage or hymn, you have to slow down to get the full affect.
If you rush, you won’t learn to appreciate either for all the good things God gives to us through them.
When it comes to providing wholesome foods for our families, it often requires us to focus on the task at hand and take the time to cook something from scratch.
Now, I know there are “convenience foods” with better ingredients and it doesn’t take much time to grab an apple or some baby carrots for a snack. Overall, however, providing wholesome foods requires more work than opening a bag or a box and sticking a premade meal in the oven.
The same can be said about incorporating our faith throughout our homes. While you can still grow in your faith even when you’re in the midst of those really busy seasons in life, so much richness comes when we take time to pause and reflect.
- Thinking about what the passage in our devotions means to us as a mom
- Time to read the Bible and Bible story books to our kids, even when they’re running around the room yelling
- Taking time to light candles on the Advent wreath or read an Advent devotion has a family’s
Both break us of our want for instant gratification
In both our physical and spiritual lives, we want growth to happen more quickly than it often does. We want to reach the next level or accomplishment with only a little work…and little patience.
Whether we’re waiting for a long-fermented food to be ready, to see the physical rewards for fueling our bodies with nourishing foods, or waiting to see how God works our current circumstances for good in our lives, both natural living and Christian living teach us to be patient.
Both are journeys where we all start somewhere and move forward at different paces. For some people, things might move faster, for others, they may not see their reward until years later.
Natural living can help us glorify God with our bodies
In 1 Corinthians 6:19, we are told that our bodies are temples for the Lord and that they belong to Him, not to us. As such, we have the responsibility to take good care of them.
By focusing on filling them with natural, nourishing foods and products, we can keep from destroying them by loading them down with toxic chemicals and artificial ingredients.
When our bodies have the fuel they need, they can function we will be better able to use them to serve God in the ways He has for us to do so.
We can also use our bodies to glorify God through how we use our time. As mothers, should we be spending our time being constantly stressed about the house or supper? Or should we try to simplify things so we can focus more of our time on God and our families?
We all know the answer, but it can be so hard to actually live out in our daily lives.
Natural living helps us take care of God’s Creation
When we purchase sustainably grown food and other products, we care for God’s creation by not supporting practices that harm the earth.
Caring about the earth isn’t just for New Age followers who worship the earth.
We as Christians should care for the earth because it is the only place God has given to us as our home until He comes again in glory. What more reason do we need to take good care of it?
Reducing our waste can help us make better use of the things we already have, reminding us that we are privileged to have all the things we already own.
By promoting practices that reduce pollution in the air, water, etc. we can do our part to keep our man-made products from wreaking havoc on God’s Creation and His creatures.
In that way, we can focus on helping those whom we share the earth with currently and those whom only God knows about, to have a home where birds sing and the beauty of God’s Creation is on full display.
Whether you consider yourself a natural mom or not, we have all been tasked by the Lord to be stewards of His Creation.
I hope to show on my blog that both our faith and natural living can go hand in hand as we strive to grow in both body and soul.
