{"id":399,"date":"2018-11-17T11:25:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-17T17:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/staying-fit-and-strong-body-soul-and\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T10:15:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T16:15:47","slug":"staying-fit-and-strong-body-soul-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=399","title":{"rendered":"Staying Fit and Strong \u2013 Body, Soul, and Spirit!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I was intrigued this week when I read that if we want a healthy heart and a number we\u2019re happy with on the scale, then we should buy a bag of Brazil nuts, put our fork down by 6 pm and weigh ourselves every day \u2014 or so say the findings of several studies released ahead of the American Heart Association\u2019s yearly meeting for advances in cardiovascular science. <\/p>\n

Oh, how happy we all would be if those 3-steps were all we needed to do to stay fit! I was a \u201cbeanpole\u201d weighing in at a mere 105 pounds when I married my young husband. There wasn\u2019t much meat on my bones. That was then, and along came my baby boy who helped “fill me out” — literally! But no worries, back in my day the fitness craze started. There were always infomercials for Suzanne Somers \u201cThigh Master\u201d, Jack LaLanne\u2019s workouts, and my videotapes of Jane Fonda\u2019s aerobic routines and \u201cSweatin\u2019 to the Oldies\u201d with Richard Simmons. I confess. I tried them all. I even had one of those vibrating belt machines. I jiggled my way back to my \u201cschool girl\u201d figure. <\/p>\n

Finally, the one routine that stuck with me was when I joined Weight Watchers in 1988. That program worked for me to this day as I make sure I\u2019m on my goal weight when I check in monthly. Accountability has been such a good thing. <\/p>\n

Recently, I started having some crazy leg and back issues. I know the culprit. The long distance running that I did for years caught up with me in this milestone birthday year. My doctor urged me to start swimming to help out my body parts!
\nFortunately, there is an indoor pool in my community, so I started a swimming routine. I’m up to 15 laps of 150 feet and honestly, ALL pains are gone and I feel so good! I’ll keep on swimming!<\/p>\n

It seems God directed me to what I needed to do to stay fit in every season of my life. I\u2019m so thankful He keeps tweaking me in a natural way. But physical fitness doesn\u2019t happen overnight. It takes having a regular routine and staying with it, eating a balanced diet, regularly exercising, getting adequate rest. But, 1 Timothy 4:7-8 says: \u201cHave nothing to do with godless myths and old wives\u2019 tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good to be physically fit, and it\u2019s even better to be spiritually fit. Funny, but I haven\u2019t seen too many \u201cinfomercials\u201d on spiritual fitness. Hey, who knows? Maybe we\u2019re on to something here! We could develop some training videos on spiritual fitness: \u201cPrayers of Steel\u201d! Actually, it’s a lot easier to be spiritually fit than physically fit. It\u2019s not that difficult. In fact, I would like to suggest a very simple approach. I don\u2019t plan on creating an \u201cinfomercial\u201d any time soon, but I think the following three steps can help us get spiritually fit.<\/p>\n

1) Spiritual Fitness requires spiritual nutrition. Just as the body needs proper daily food nourishment, spiritual fitness needs daily nourishment of spiritual food. Jesus said: \u201c\u2019Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.\u2019” Matthew 4:4 Man is a spiritual being as well as a physical being. Reading and studying God\u2019s Word and combining it with faith is “soul” food. When we\u2019re down, it\u2019ll lift us up! When we\u2019re lost, it\u2019ll help us find our way! When we\u2019re fearful, it\u2019ll give us courage! When we\u2019re weak, it\u2019ll give us strength! When we\u2019re hurting, it\u2019ll give us healing! <\/p>\n

2) Spiritual fitness requires regular spiritual exercise. Faith is like a muscle that must be used and exercised for it to grow. We exercise our \u201cfaith muscles\u201d by living with audacious, unrelenting faith that comes with trusting God completely to work out every detail of our lives \u2013 in His perfect timing and His perfect way! \u201cThe righteous will live by faith.\u201d Romans 1:17<\/p>\n

3) Spiritual fitness is easier to maintain when we hang out with other \u201cspiritual fitness\u201d junkies. You know them \u2013 those who attend church and Bible studies regularly and those who talk the talk AND walk the walk of true commitment to God. <\/p>\n

Having a healthy physical AND spiritual life is a daily process of intentional and purposeful action \u2013 like a diet or exercise program. It only shows results when we practice it consistently and stick with it over the long haul. If we\u2019re not making health or spiritual progress, then we\u2019re just not staying fit! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was intrigued this week when I read that if we want a healthy heart and a number we\u2019re happy with on the scale, then we should buy a bag of Brazil nuts, put our fork down by 6 pm and weigh ourselves every day \u2014 or so say the findings of several studies released…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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":[1],"tags":[879,880,881,882,883,884,885,886,887,888,889,890,891],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-1-timothy-47-8","tag-brazil-nuts","tag-infomercials","tag-jane-fonda","tag-matthew-44","tag-richard-simmons","tag-romans-117","tag-spiritually-fit","tag-staying-fit","tag-suzanne-somers","tag-swimming","tag-thigh-master","tag-weight-watchers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","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=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8794,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions\/8794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}