The Kitchen Floor

When it comes to making cleaner choices with our food, environment, and products, there are hundreds of blogs and influencers flooding our reels with the latest and greatest things. Sometimes it’s a great product that we have come to love ourselves, and other times it’s been a dud that they promoted just because they get a kickback. That was part of the motivation to include clean living in my content. I will not promote or share a product I haven’t used and seen real-time results with. I’m also not an influencer, no kickbacks, or high fives from companies, so my options are very non-biased.

I wasn’t always a scrunchy mom (sorta crunchy), but I was raised in a home with a parent who works in the medical field. We grew up taking Flintstone vitamins with our echinacea capsules, McDonalds with our farm fresh veggies. It wasn’t until I had my own tiny NICU baby that I started questioning what different things would impact his tiny body. It started with balms and ointments, progressed to making our own baby food (more on that later), and then there was the day he broke out in hives from produce. The “dirty dozen” quickly became a thing in our home as we realized our child was having allergic reactions to the sprays and chemicals on conventional produce. Cue all the organic fruits. These choices starting shifted out of necessity, not preference, because we were beyond poor. We found other ways to tighten the already tight budgeting belt, and made it work. Fast forward to now, we have a budget line for supplements, holistic options, and clean choices. We have seen the benefits of cleaner choices in our own health and our children. Now, before you start thinking we are prudes with this stuff, we are focused on living a realistic lifestyle where moderation is wisdom and we make the best choice with what is in front of us. That’s actually our philosophy for a lot of life. We won’t always get it right, but we are going to do our best.

So how does this relate to spiritual health? Does eating clean make me more sanctified or extra crowns in heaven? I don’t know about any extra crown, but I do know that when we become aware of things in our lives that aren’t the best choice for our spiritual health and we choose to consume them anyway, we are not living out life to the fullest that God has for us. Do we need to eat organic to be holy? Absolutely not. But we do need to make sure what we are putting in our body is beneficial, not purely pleasurable. The Bible references our bodies as temples for God, living sacrifices, vessels that are to be a conduit of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:9, Romans 12:1, 2 Timothy 2:21. What we are consuming emotionally, with entertainment, socially, and visually are more toxic to your body than which lotion and strawberries you buy. It drives my kids crazy, but I will often ask them what the goal is in whatever they are watching. Typically, it’s something along the lines of goals to achieve a new record, but on occasion there are moments where the goal might be to laugh at another’s expense, revenge, or straight brain rot. Unless there is something that needs to be turned off immediately, I try to use those moments to teach them to think logically about the content they’re consuming and how it affects their body, mind, and spirit. For example, my teenage daughter is what would be labeled a girly girl and she loves being in the know. When a popular artist released a new album a couple years ago she was excited to listen to it and celebrate it with her friends, but we have a best practice to look over the lyrics to new songs and see where they fall on the healthy meter. A couple days after the release I asked if she wanted to listen to any of it while we drove to dance, she replied she had looked over the lyrics and decided none of them were actually going to help her mental state with anxiety or feeling like she was enough. We continued with a conversation about discernment and how when we are already vulnerable to a certain train of thought and emotion we have to be extra aware of what we are surrounding ourselves with and consuming. For me, it’s music that talks about the “what if’s”. I can have a whole dissertation written in my head about what might happen, and music that talks about regrets and what if’s makes it harder to take every thought captive. 2 Corinthians 10:5. Setting boundaries for myself in these areas is key for my mental state, which directly affects my spiritual and physical ones.

The same principles apply to every area. If you feel discontent or anxious after scrolling, watching the latest episode of your current show, or hanging out with certain people, don’t ignore those red flags. The Holy Spirit is a guide and counselor. John 14:26. If you’re feeling a gut check, there is a reason. Nothing is worth the temporary pleasure that causes a negative impact on your relationship with Christ. This is where clean living has to have a line drawn for me, even in the category of clean choices I have to be careful. I cannot let the consumption of information and research cause fear or devour all my time. It’s so easy to find a reason behind everything being toxic, I saw something the other day talking about how chia seeds are not meant to be consumed in the volume most people do, even healthy can be communicated as unhealthy. This is why we must pray for discernment in all areas of our lives and not let good intentions become toxic distractions.

As I share more about our family’s journey with holistic and clean living, please remember this is what works for us. It’s taken lots of trial and error, learning that every one of us is made differently, and each new attempt may backfire. (Looking at you melatonin suggested for the insomniac child!). You have to discern for yourself, give grace where it’s needed, and be willing to mess up in order to make progress. Figuring out what doesn’t work is as important as what does in some battles.

Don’t be overwhelmed with options or flipping all the products in a day. No one who went clean figured it all out overnight. Now, let’s refill your cup and don’t judge my iced lavender cream matcha while I tell you what organic products are my favs. I’m working on a healthier alternative for that fix as well, but right now I need to survive this time change and how it has wrecked my tribe. I’ll meet you back here again in a few days. Till then, don’t be afraid to ask the Holy Spirit for discernment and wisdom, we can never have too much!