Ideas for Building Up Physical and Spiritual Health

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been writing about the importance of physical and spiritual health. In this final post on this subject, I’d like to put forth some ideas. Each day is a new day and our today can be better than yesterday. This day with God, we can get off on the right track, have the right frame of mind, feel better, be happy, and do amazing things. There are many dietary rules in the Bible that test our obedience. These rules can apply today for the food we take in for our souls including what we read, watch, or think about.

One idea is to go on short vacations by surfing the net for pictures that help connect to a Bible verse, find something that makes us laugh, or find facts about our Creator’s amazing world. This activity has two goals in mind. First, it relaxes our body and mind. Second, it equips us for sharing thoughts and ideas with others.

A prescription for stress is working out with God’s Word, praying, and listening to the Spirit. These activities build muscles of faith which stay strong and build forever. Unlike muscles of the physical body, building up muscles for the soul provides an everlasting gain.

One idea I’ve tried is to mix scripture and exercise into a routine that I call believersize. What you do is find a scripture to memorize and search the internet for pictures that crystallizes a principle from that scripture. You then can put these together into an application like PowerPoint. As you ride your stationary bike or walk on the treadmill, you can view the slides. This is a way to take in God’s Word and exercise at the same time.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” The goal is to take care of God’s temple through a system of scripture memory and exercise. You can have all the latest and greatest exercise equipment but if you never take it out of the box, it’s useless. You have to find something that inspires and there’s nothing like God’s Word to get you started. With believersize, you begin to notice things seem easier. That’s because the intangibles of a winner are being built from the inside and all that internal good stuff just oozes out.

For an inspirational start to your day, join me at This Day with God Devotional.

Affects of Good Physical and Mental Health on Society

Good physical and mental health helps a society tremendously. Without it, the quality of life can be in terrible shape. Some third world countries have poor health because of unclean food and throughout life children have difficulties.

A vacation my family once took was to Moody Gardens in Galveston Texas. What started out as a place to help those with paralysis, Moody Gardens has become a place to learn and relax. The major attractions there consist of pyramids that house animal and plant life. Also there are great 3D theaters that show educational short movies. I remember one movie that explained how the health of humans and nature relies on the health of our oceans.

Everything consists of cycles in our world. An example is the water cycle where rain water fills lakes and rivers which flow into our oceans. Then evaporation causes the collection of moisture in the atmosphere to produce more rain. Stress also causes a cycle but it’s a bad cycle which cost our healthcare industry an astronomical amount of money. What’s been discovered is that stress leads to heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidental injuries, and suicide. It pushes many to drinking alcohol which can lead to cirrhosis of the liver for individuals but it can also harm others like in auto accidents.

Refuel and Recharge

Speaking of autos, they can get you many places and go far distances but they have to contain fuel to go. It’s the same with us as everyone needs to refuel. God Himself rested on the seventh day.

So since we’ve established the fact that we all have to refuel, where do we get it? There’s no better fuel than God’s Word. A cheerful heart restores the mind and body; therefore we can be in good spirits by reading the good news of God’s Word, accepting His kindness, and building faith by knowing Christ. The refueling station is His church. Sundays should be a day to take it easy. It should be a day to worship God and be appreciative. It should be a day to slow down and enjoy the comforts of your home.

Our fuel for the soul which Jesus provides is inner peace and abundant life that is full of meaning; infused with purpose, contentment, and joy. With the explosion of computer technology, we sometimes forget that it is only a tool. The greatest machine ever made is you; God has made you to be the most efficient and productive machine ever known. Then He’s provided the fuel to make you go called the Holy Spirit.

Next time, we will look at how good physical and mental health provides abundant life with a bright outlook. Please connect with me on facebook at this link.

 

Change The World

Some float through life doing things for which they have no passion. They are consumed by their weaknesses. They never discover the benefit they could provide to our society if they would explore, dream, and discover! Over the next few paragraphs, my objective is to provide you with an example of someone who didn’t float through life but went down the roaring rapids of life.

He loved to draw and had an interest in motion pictures. Often, he took his sister to Electric Park which was only a few blocks from their home and one of the world’s first full time amusement parks. It was near Heim Brothers Brewery in Kansas City Missouri.

While in High School, he took night courses at the Chicago Art Institute. He became cartoonist for the school newspaper. He dropped out of school at sixteen to join the army but rejected because he was underage so he decided to join the Red Cross where he was sent to France during World War I. For a year he drove an ambulance.

In 1919, he found work as an artist but was told by the newspaper that he was not creative enough. He started his own animation company making Laugh-O-Grams or what we call cartoons today and secured a deal with a local theater to screen them. The cartoons became popular in the Kansas City area but studio profits were insufficient to cover employee salaries and it went bankrupt.

He moved to Hollywood in 1925 and started a studio with his brother Roy. By now many of you know who I’m writing about. Walt Disney was most valuable to their company when he was using his gift of innovation instead of running the day-to-day operations. Roy was good with running the day to day operations of the business. They had some success with a series put into production through Universal Pictures but Universal cut their fees and stole some of their artist.

But Walt continued to be an Innovator and created some of the world’s most well-known fictional characters including Mickey Mouse in the 1930’s and Donald Duck in the 1940’s. In 1938, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first animated movie in America made in Technicolor. It became the most successful motion picture of 1938. In the late 1940’s, he drew sketches of ideas for an amusement park and Disney Land opened in 1955.

In the 1950’s, his company began expanding into other entertainment operations. Treasure Island became the studio’s first all-live-action feature, soon followed by 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Old Yeller, and Swiss Family Robinson. The television show, Mickey Mouse Club debuted in 1955. Walt Disney won twenty two Academy Awards – More than any other individual in History. In May 1965, land owners were happy to get rid of swamp land a few miles southwest of Orlando. Walt Disney world opened in October 1971.

Walt Disney died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966, before his vision was realized but he taught us to be enthusiastic about life. He taught us about having a passion; an absorbing interest in what we do. Things come easier when we do what we like to do. Kids seem to get it a little better than adults. Every day can be a holiday if we look forward to what tomorrow will bring. Each day, we should be like a child going on a vacation.

More pictures are taken at Walt Disney World, the world’s number one tourist attraction, than at any other single location on the planet. Today, Walt Disney’s animation/motion picture studios and theme parks have developed into a multi-billion dollar television, motion picture, vacation destination and media corporation.

What lesson has been learned: Just to have solid dreams and let God take it to a level that you never dreamed of. We serve a supernatural God who is not limited to the laws of nature. He can do what human beings cannot do and make a way in our lives where it looks as if there is no way; therefore we should stop focusing on what we can't do, and start focusing on what God can do. Give it your all. Don't settle for mediocrity but do things with a passion. Imagine approaching each day with enthusiasm because you have the chance to bring order to God’s world. You have a chance to enthusiastically explore, dream, and discover!

Below is a video I made of our vacation to Disney World last summer.

Thanks for reading. I'd like to invite you to take a look at my other blogs at the links below:

This Day with God
Step Ahead