Happy New Year! How was 1997 for you? Were you proud of everything you accomplished, or are there some dark pages in your past? Have you decided to observe all the health habits that God has so graciously given you, or are you “tempting God” to let you go on as you have in the past, trusting that He will overlook your small mistakes and rebellious hearts and still grant you Eternal Life? Oh how far we do go when we tempt God. It is a very dangerous pathway to be following, and one that eventually will prove ruin to your soul if you do not confess your wrong habits and reform. So let us endeavor this new year to give God a year of perfect obedience to all His laws, that we may reap the many benefits of this program in this life and then be found faultless before His throne in the hereafter.
Exercise and its benefits are in so many of the modern health journals. I am reminded of the statement in the Spirit of Prophecy, “There is no exercise that will prove as beneficial to every part of the body as walking.” Healthful Living, 130. Action is the law of our being. Every organ of the body has its appointed work, upon the performance of which its development and strength depend. The normal action of all the organs gives strength and vigor, while the disuse leads toward decay and death. Bind up an arm, even for a few weeks, then free it from its bands, and you will see that it is weaker than the one you have been using moderately during the same time. Inactivity produces the same effect upon the whole muscular system.
“Inactivity is a fruitful cause of disease. Exercise quickens and equalizes the circulation of the blood, but in idleness the blood does not circulate freely, and the changes in it, so necessary to life and health, do not take place. The skin, too, becomes inactive. Impurities are not expelled as they would be if the circulation had been quickened by vigorous exercise, the skin kept in a healthy condition, and the lungs fed with plenty of pure, fresh air. This state of the system throws a double burden on the excretory organs, and disease is the result . . .
“Exercise aids the dyspeptic by giving the digestive organs a healthy tone. To engage in severe study or violent physical exercise immediately after eating, hinders the work of digestion; but a short walk after a meal, with the head erect and the shoulders back, is a great benefit.
“Notwithstanding all that is said and written concerning its importance, there are still many who neglect physical exercise. Some grow corpulent because the system is clogged; others become thin and feeble because their vital powers are exhausted in disposing of an excess of food. The liver is burdened in its effort to cleanse the blood of impurities, and illness is the result.
“Those whose habits are sedentary should, when the weather will permit, exercise in the open air every day, summer or winter. Walking is preferable to riding or driving, for it brings more of the muscles into exercise. The lungs are forced into healthy action, since it is impossible to walk briskly without inflating them.
“Such exercise would in many cases be better for the health than medicine” Ministry of Healing, 238.
This New Year let us make a new resolution—EXERCISE.
Corn Pones
1/2 c. date sugar
1/2 t. sea salt
1 c. flour
1 T. soy flour
3 c. corn meal
2 T. nut butter
1 1/3 c. nut or soy milk
Mix, beat well, and drop batter from spoon into flat cakes. Bake in hot oven at 400° for about 25 minutes. This recipe may also be used as the crust for Pizza, just reduce the date sugar and press into a Pizza pan. Do not pre-bake.