TODAY'S WORDS OF WISDOM ARCHIVE
This column presents practical truths that when practiced will greatly enhance your health.
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Theme for January: "How to Handle Worry and Anxiety"
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Week of January 10
"Do not worry about tomorrow, for God is already there."
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV). Application: What ever issues you face today, just relax, take few deep breaths, and imagine that our awesome God is working it out with you. How does it feel to know that God is working with you?
Week of January 17
A Quick Formula for Solving Worry
Step 1. Stop immediately and ask, what is the worst thing that can happen regarding the situation that is causing me worry and anxiety? Will I lose my job, my health, my life, or my soul?
Step 2. After figuring out the worst thing that can happen, resolve in yourself to accept it if necessary. Do this now. After taking these first two steps you will feel a sense of peace and rest. Do you feel it?
Step 3. About what could happen that may worry you, pray about it. Trust that God will work it out. Paul, writing from an awful prison cell, told his church members to pray instead of panicking about challenging situations. PRAY AND DO NOT PANIC!
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things...." I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:5-8, 13 NIV)
Pray this Prayer now: "Lord you command me not be anxious about my present situation, so I present this situation to you now. Thank you for working it out perfectly. I accept your peace which is now guarding my thoughts and emotions and transcending my human understanding. It feels so good. With your help, I chose to think and meditate only on the things that are true, noble and lovely.... I thank you that I am doing all this through Jesus Christ who gives me the inner strength. Amen!"
Week of January 24
How to Master One of Our Biggest Worries
Are you worried about how you will pay your bills? It is said that 96% of couples worry about money. Financial problems are the number one reason why marriages end in divorce.
This Words of Wisdom will discuss 7 reasons from Matthew 6:25-34 on how you can use your Faith to Master your Finances, so that you will not have to worry about making ends meet again.
- The God who gives us life and a body can be trusted to supply all the needs of our life.
- God who takes care of the less significant creatures - things like the birds and flowers - will take care of us who are far more valuable to Him.
- Worrying is more harmful than helpful. So choose to trust God and do not worry.
- Worry shows a lack of faith in God and an understanding of His love and ability to provide for His children.
- Like a good parent, God knows every financial need we will have before they arise, and has already prepared opportunities to meet and supply those needs. But we must trust Him.
- Worry keeps us from pursuing the most important thing in life - seeking first the kingdom or rule of God in our life. When we put first things first, material things become a bonus. God will supply them.
- Live one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself.
Application: What steps can I take today to use these 7 reasons to prevent me from worrying about my financial and materials needs? Read through Matthew 6:25-34 and learn how to use your Faith to Master your Finances.
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Theme for February: "Building Healthier Relationships"
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Week of January 31/ February 1
If you are going to relate well with others and with life, you need to have a healthy relationship with yourself. Isn't that true? Today's topic is:
"Building a Healthier Relationship with MYSELF."
Ask yourself this, Do I realize that what I think about myself is more important than what others think about me? Well, do you? Many times people relate and respond to me based on the aura or attitude that comes from me. If I radiate confidence, people tend to react to me in like manner. If I radiate fear and unworthiness, people sense that also.
So ask yourself these questions: What type of aura am I sending out to others? What is this aura saying about who I think I am? What are some qualities I admire about myself? What are some qualities that I would like to be changed with God's help? Write down the answers now.
Steps in Building a Healthier Relationship with Myself:
- 1. Write down in this order the qualities that I like about myself and the qualities that I would like to be changed with God's help.
- 2. Accept the good and not so good qualities about me. Thank God for my good qualities and ask Him to help me change the undesirable ones.
- 3. Remind myself that every human being has desirable and undesirable qualities, strengths and weaknesses. That's just the way it is. We are all on level ground.
- 4. Resolve not to compare myself with others. I am a unique expression of the creative mind of God. There is no one else in the universe exactly like me. I am special.
- 5. Build my self-worth based on who God says I am in His Holy Word, and not on what the world, my family, or my past, or what the devil says I am.
It's not so much a matter of whether I am beautiful or ugly - whether I am churched or unchurched, educated or uneducated, white or black.... "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom 5:6-8 NIV)
If the great and wonderful God loves and demonstrates His love for me by dying for me before I was thinking about him and while I was in my sinful state, whom am I not to love who God loves - ME.
Right now, lovingly place your hands over your heart and repeat the following statement three times with deep conviction and passion: "Thank you, God, for loving me just as I am."
Pause and do it, feel it, believe it, meditate on it.
- 6. What else does God say about me in His Word? He says some incredible things about me! For example, in 2 Corinthians 5:13-20, He says, "in Christ," I am a new person, a new creation.
-I have a new motivation for living (the love that God has for me, verse 13). I have a new way of measuring or evaluating people (the death of Christ). I have a new status with God-I am reconciled with Him; I have a new ministry the ministry of reconciliation. Yes, "in Christ" I get a complete makeover... from the inside out.
Who I am in Christ gives me a new lease on life. Do I feel that I have a new reason for living? Do I evaluate others based on the fact that God loves them as He loves me? Do I feel that I am reconciled with God? No matter how you feel, you need to declare who you are in Christ. In Revelation 1:5-6, He says that I am a priest and king. These are the two highest statuses in the religious and political world. Do I believe and feel that I am priest and a king?
The best way to build a healthier relationship with myself is begin to believe and see myself as God says I am in His Word!!! I need to form a picture of who God says I am and affirm it morning and evening for the next seven days and beyond. Will I take this life changing step today to build a healthier relationship? () Yes () No
For by beholding I become changed in the image of the thing I behold.(2 Corinthians 3:18)
Week of February 14
Building a Healthier Relationship between a Man and his Maiden
In Proverbs 30:18-19, King Solomon who married 700 wives and had 300 concubines said, "There are three things that are too amazing for me... four that I do not understand: the way of a man with a maiden" (NIV). This indicates how challenging it can be to develop a healthier relationship between a Man and his Maiden.
Nonetheless, here are some Million Dollar Secrets of building a healthier relationship between a man and his maiden. What qualifies me to give these secrets? With God's blessing, I am in a very healthy and fulfilling marriage relationship for 28 years. I have counseled many premarital and married couples, and I am a Certified Family Life Educator.
Secret 1: We must accept the fact that a Man and a Maiden thinks and acts differently and love means different things each. Therefore to have a healthy and wholesome relationship with each other, a man must come out of his skin and view things from his maiden's point of view and the maiden must do likewise. In doing this, the man still remains a man and the maiden a maiden. This will takes patience and respect from both. This approach fulfills the greatest yearnings of the heart of both, which is to be understood.
Application: To what degree are you able to see things from your maiden's point of view? And to what degree are you able to see things form your man's point of view?
Secret 2: Realize that when the image of the spouse in your head is different from the spouse in your bed, relational conflicts will arise. Each one of us consciously and mostly unconsciously grew up with an image in the back of our heads as to what the ideal man or maiden should be. When the real man or maiden (the one in our bed) conflicts with the ideal man or maiden (the one in our head), we try to change the real man or maiden. In doing so, we stir up a lot of resistance and conflicts. If we truly want a healthy relationship, it is better to work on adjusting the image of the person in our heads rather than trying to change the one in our bed. Does this make much sense to you? Remember we can only change ourselves. Stop trying to change your significant other. Accept him or her just as he or she is. Acceptance is the first principle of divine love.
Secret 3: Romance and Finance. It is said that romance without finance creates a nuisance. Someone says it this way, "No money, no honey." It is well documented that financial problems is the number one reasons for marriage conflicts and divorce in the US. However, money is not the real problem; rather, it the way that couples view money that creates the problem. Money can be seen from four perspectives: 1. Money as power- When money is viewed as power the spouse that has more money has more power. The balance of power changes in the relationship based on who has more money. This is not good for the long-term security of the relationship. It should be based and love and respect for each other and not on materials things. This also relegates the value of the man or maiden to materials things. 2. Money as a Status Symbol- The man and the maiden has difference status symbols. For the man it could be his electronic equipment and for the maiden it could be her clothes. Money becomes a problem when one can freely get his or her status symbol and the other cannot. So this calls for fairness and respect for each needs 3. Money as Love- If you love me, you would buy me this for me. When money is vied as a symbol of love, it can create marital problems if it has to be shifted to other responsibilities and the gifts are no longer available to the spouse. She could feel less loved. She could become resentful and miserable. 4. Money as Independence- For example, if the maiden begins to earn more money than the man, this could cause her to exert a greater degree of independence. If this increased sense of independence is not handled with respect, it can cause fights between the man and his maiden. Spiritually speaking the worth and value of a man or woman should not be based on material things. It should be based on the fact that the spouse is valuable as a human being and a child of God.
Secret 4: The Secret Source of Joy in the relationship between a Man and His Maiden. Here is the by-product of having this secret source of joy in the relationship of the man and his maiden. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Gal 5:22-23 NIV). Would you like your relationship to be filled with these awesome spiritual qualities? If you do, realize that they are the by-products of having a Spirit-controlled and directed relationship personally and as a couple. The Holy Spirit is this Secret source of Joy. Jesus promised this precious Holy Spirit to any one that asks him. Here is the promise. Ask for it today. "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" (Luke 11:13)
With God help, when a Man and His Maiden apply these secrets, they will experience a little heaven on earth in their relationship. Start applying these secrets today.
Dr. Leroy A. Daley
Week of February 23
Building Healthier Relationships With Our Children
Our health can be positively or adversely affected by the relationship we have with our children; isn't that so? According to Josh McDowell, International Youth Speaker and Author of the Why Wait? Series, the number one contributing factor to the Adolescence Crisis is lack of an open, close relationship of mutual love and respect between parent and child. Rules without Relationship equal Rebellion - either active resistance or passive indifference.
Here are Josh's five secret keys to building a healthier relationship with our children....
Secret Key #1: Provide Acceptance
A child needs to be convinced that no matter what happens - no matter what he does - our acceptance and love of him will never waver. One way to provide this unconditional acceptance is to praise effort more than success. The crucial question is not whether the child gets an A, but it is whether or not that was the best he or she could do. Acceptance gives your child a sense of security.
Secret Key #2: Give Honest Appreciation
Expressing appreciation for who your child is gives a sense of significance. Children need to know that their parents appreciate them for who they are. Instead of criticizing your child all the time, try to catch him or her doing something good. Appreciation gives you child of significance.
Secret Key #3: Be Available
Making ourselves available to our children will communicate to them that they are important to us. Talk, play games, wrestle on the floor, watch a special program with them. Do things with them that are interesting to them. If you show interest in them now they will show interest in you later. Availability gives your child a sense of importance and worth.
Secret Key #4: Show Affection
Showing affection to your children will give them a sense of lovability. If a child feels confident that Mom and Dad loves me, then he or she is able to think, other people will be able to love me too. Children need a lot of affection. They need to hear the words, ''I love you,'' over and over. Affection builds a sense of lovability.
Secret Key #5: Establish Accountability
Establishing accountability in your relationship with your child will give him or her a sense of responsibility.These five elements built in your relationship with your child will make him or her strong and healthy.
Application: Which of these five areas do you need to improve on as you relate to your child? What steps will you take to make improvements?
Claim God's promise for your children. Isaiah 49:25, ''But thus says the Lord: 'Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible be delivered; for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children.'''
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Theme for March & April: "Ancient Health Secrets Exposed"
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(Most of the practical secrets for this month are taken from one of America's most respected and prolific female writer on health, Ellen G. White.)
Week of March 7
Secret #1: Correct Posture in Sitting and Standing
"Among the first things to be aimed at should be a correct position, both in sitting and in standing. God made man upright, and He desires him to possess not only the physical but the mental and moral benefit, the grace and dignity and self-possession, the courage and self-reliance, which an erect bearing so greatly tends to promote. Let the teacher give instruction on this point by example and by precept. Show what a correct position is, and insist that it shall be maintained." {Ellen White, Education p.198}
Note what an erect posture greatly promotes:
- Physical, mental and moral benefit
- Grace, dignity and self- possession
- Courage and self reliance
Application: Do I generally sit and stand upright, if not, what can I do starting now to sit and stand erect so I can reap the benefits of proper posture?
Secret #2 Deep Breathing and Vocal Culture
"Next in importance to right position are respiration and vocal culture. The one who sits and stands erect is more likely than others to breathe properly. But the teacher should impress upon his pupils the importance of deep breathing. Show how the healthy action of the respiratory organs, assisting the circulation of the blood, invigorates the whole system, excites the appetite, promotes digestion, and induces sound, sweet sleep, thus not only refreshing the body, but soothing and tranquilizing the mind. And while the importance of deep breathing is shown, the practice should be insisted upon. Let exercises be given which will promote this, and see that the habit becomes established" {Ellen White, Education P. 198}
Note what proper breathing accomplishes:
- Assists in the circulation of blood
- Invigorates the whole system
- Excites the appetite
- Promotes digestion
- Induces sound, sweet sleep, not only refreshing the body, but soothing and tranquilizing the mind.
Application: Do I breathe properly? I can see an example of proper breathing if I look at a baby breathe deeply from the diaphragm. What can I do today to start breathing deeply and have the rich benefits of this good health habit?
