Healthiness is a Choice so Choose Wisely

One of my sons’ favorite movies right now is The Iron Giant.  It is about a robot that falls to earth and doesn’t remember his purpose.  He was created to be a weapon but with the help of a little boy named Hogarth, the robot learns that he can be whatever he chooses.  I think one of the best lines in the movie is, “You are who you choose to be.”  That is such a simple statement but it really sums up how we live our lives.

 Many of us make a New Year’s resolution to be healthier.  Whether its losing weight, quitting smoking, or some other variable that affects your health, we all want to make healthier choices.  So it’s February now, how is your resolution going?  Are you making the choices that will help you to have a healthier body, mind, and spirit? 

     Achieving a healthy body, mind, and spirit is difficult.  At one of my MOPS meetings we had a psychiatrist as a speaker.  One of the things he said was that Christians have the healthiest life style.  It doesn’t take much thought to figure out why.  It is because we strive to be godly people.  We try to make the right choices for our bodies, minds, and spirits in order to please God.  Now, this doesn’t mean that if you are not a Christian that you are not a healthy person.  It just means that as Christians, we make a conscious choice to live a more Christ-like life. 

     The book of the bible Proverbs was written to help us gain wisdom, discipline, and understanding and to help guide us in doing what is right and fair in our lives (summary of Proverbs 1).  Proverbs 3:8 tells us that one of the benefits of wisdom is, “health to your body and nourishment to your bones.”  By using wisdom in our choices, the bible tells us that we will be healthy people.

     Another thing that stood out to me from the psychiatrist’s speech was that we are only responsible for our selves and our children up, to a certain age.  God is not going to judge us on other peoples choices, only our own.  If the people around us are not using wisdom and making healthy choices, we can’t use that as an excuse for not making our own healthy choices.  If we want to have a healthy body, mind, and spirit our choices should be based on wisdom, understanding, and discipline.  Remember, you are who you choose to be, so choose wisely and reap the benefits that God promised.