My mother, when she was 94 (now graduated to heaven), would tell her doctor: \u201cThere are mornings when I just don\u2019t want to get out of bed because everything hurts too much!\u201d And her doctor\u2019s response was: \u201cWhen you stop forcing yourself to get out of bed, is when you\u2019ll be bedridden. If you don\u2019t use it, you\u2019ll lose it!\u201d
Remembering those doctor\u2019s words, the more I realize how precious life is and how much I want to live out Jesus\u2019 words from John 10:10 \u201cI came to give you life and life more abundantly!\u201d God does His part and I best be doing my part! I want to live like that, though the older I get, the more I recognize the aging process going on in this prime-time body. God helps me by giving me wisdom on how to take care of the one who is my constant companion in this life \u2013 ME! That wisdom led me to a great, Christian chiropractor who relieved years of sciatic pain via a medieval-looking decompression table. Literally, no-mo pain! And, to top it off, this sweet, young 45-year old doctor says after, \u201cI love ya’, Donna!\u201d This place is good for the heart, soul AND back!
I am fully aware of \u201cusing it so I don\u2019t lose it\u201d! I go to the fitness center at 5 am almost every day to keep these body parts movin\u2019 and groovin\u2019! I know what not to eat because of the after-effects that come from \u201cthat\u201d food choice. I know how to sleep so that I don\u2019t wake with a crick in my neck. I know what shoes to wear to prevent foot issues. I know that I not only need to floss my teeth, but I need to use a water pik as well. I know that I need to moisturize this face and body to keep it smooth and hydrated. I know I need to take food supplements to keep me healthy. I know I need to stay out of the sun unless I\u2019ve applied heavy sunscreen! I know I need to drink lots of water! I\u2019m challenging my mind by taking a Spanish class and practice by using the Duolingo app. I enjoy playing a great mind-challenging game of Mah Jongg. I know all these intentional practices are keeping me and my mind active and alive. Whew!
I know I need to keep using my mind. I know how easy it is to watch mindless TV and use my computer for answers to questions, and calculator for counting. Long past are the days when we had to do arithmetic and math in our heads without devices that did the math for us. And long past are the days when we had to look up info by thumbing through an Encyclopedia. And, with the advent of technology, we don\u2019t have to use a road map to find our way \u2013 we have a GPS system that guides us directly to our destination. The former roles of our minds have been replaced by technology.
Why am I saying all this? Maybe it’s because of my recent birthday and the continual reminder to keep active and doing things that matter \u2013 especially taking the time to show others that they matter. It\u2019s easy to text a message or make a phone call to a friend to catch up, but \u201cstuff\u201d gets in the way and we never make that call. It\u2019s easy to send a quick text message with emoticons instead of saying the words \u201cI love you.\u201d It\u2019s easy to send an email when someone really needs to know that we thought about them enough to send a handwritten letter or card.
Maybe it\u2019s time we use our brains for reading more, researching more, writing more and good old arithmetic more AND even using our brains for stretching our faith to believe more. “Whatever a man thinks in his heart \u2013 so is he” Proverbs 23:7. My almost 99 years old mother-in-law (still on purpose and not giving up) and I both know our limitations these days but we both do what we can because we know “Use it so we don’t lose it!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My mother, when she was 94 (now graduated to heaven), would tell her doctor: \u201cThere are mornings when I just don\u2019t want to get out of bed because everything hurts too much!\u201d And her doctor\u2019s response was: \u201cWhen you stop forcing yourself to get out of bed, is when you\u2019ll be bedridden. If you don\u2019t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21485,21484,13088],"tags":[143,1210,5533,1769,21482,21481,21483,4435,4016,40,159,21414,1764,3078,5043,5050,1493],"class_list":["post-14808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aging-process","category-use-it-or-lose-it","category-wisdom","tag-abundant-life","tag-blog","tag-chiropractor","tag-christian","tag-decompression","tag-dont-lose-it-2","tag-duolingo","tag-fitness-center","tag-gps","tag-inspiration","tag-john-1010","tag-prime-time-2","tag-proverbs-237","tag-road-map","tag-use-it","tag-use-our-brains","tag-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14808"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14811,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14808\/revisions\/14811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}