A Wonderful Gift

By Cami Checketts –

Imagine your father came to visit you and handed you the keys to a brand new Mercedes Benz GL450 Sport Utility. How would you treat that gift your father has given you? Would you forget to change the oil, rotate the tires, vacuum the interior, or put good quality gas in it? I’m sure you wouldn’t. You’d take wonderful care of that vehicle and make sure Dad got a big old kiss and so many professions of gratitude you’d probably embarrass the poor guy.

Our physical bodies are a gift from our Heavenly Father. We can and should do amazing things with our physical bodies—move, breathe, have children, hug those beautiful children, run and dance. The list goes on and on. How do we show our Heavenly Father how grateful we are for this gift? We take good care of it!

To have the strength and energy we need to serve and love our brothers and sisters, we have to take care of our physical self. We’re all busy and overwhelmed, but if we neglect the basics of good health, we will find ourselves feeling worse, fighting health problems, and eventually unable to keep up with life.

What are those basics? Sleep, good nutrition and physical activity.

Sleep—With a two-month old baby we’re struggling with this one, but at times I find myself squandering my sleep time. There are usually things I can cut out that aren’t important (who needs to fold the laundry?) so I can get a little more rest.

Good nutrition—The United States Department of Agriculture has a great overview of your basic good nutrition. Try to avoid fad diets that can help you lose weight initially but will ultimately hurt your health and usually result in a large weight gain after you quit the diet.

Physical activity—Being physically active does not mean you have to hit the gym for an hour each day. Find activities you can enjoy with your loved ones, wear a pedometer to try and move more each day, or if you enjoy the gym, set up a schedule so you can get there. The adversary would have us believe that the goal of exercise is to have perfect abs, but that’s not going to happen for most of us. The real goal of exercise is to help us function better in our daily lives and to improve stamina, self-confidence and overall health.

I hope none of us will take for granted this glorious gift our Heavenly Father has given us. Of course, we’ll never be perfect in our sleeping, eating, or exercising, but what counts is that we do our best. Let’s focus on being healthy so we can further the Lord’s work and be there for those we love.

Cami Checketts is a wife, mother of four boys, exercise scientist and author of The Sister Pact —In Stores Now http://fitnessformom.blogspot.com, www.camichecketts.com,
http://camicheckettsbooks.blogspot.com .