Don’t tell anybody this. It’s embarrassing! I buy a new lawn mower about every two years. Right now I have three in my garage, one of which is functional. It’s not that I love cutting my grass so much. It’s that I don’t know anything about repairs, and I’ve found that taking it to a repair shop usually costs almost as much as buying a new one. Not to mention the trouble I have loading a mower into and out of my Honda Civic! (I do change the oil!) Thankfully it’s mowers I go through so quickly instead of cars!

We know almost everything we own needs maintenance. Our cars, our houses, our bicycles, our yards, our pets . . . We dust our furniture and vacuum our floors. And we know if we don’t maintain our possessions, they will not last. What if we were "too busy" to take the car for an oil change, or to fix the leaky roof? However when it comes to maintaining ourselves, that’s our excuse. Too busy.  How many times have you heard or said in the past week "I don’t have time"? And it’s usually the truth. Between work and church activities and meetings and transporting children here and there, we don’t have time. However, we find time for whatever is truly important to us, and there are three areas I challenge us all not to neglect, because they can’t be bought every two years like my lawn mower. Three areas under our jurisdiction that cannot be replaced on this earth if we don’t take care of them. Thus actually more important to maintain than houses, cars, or lawn mowers: our bodies, our minds, and our spirits.

We all know we should eat right and exercise, but most of us still don’t do it. Mostly because "we don’t have time," but also because we can’t see immediate results. If we eat right all day and then go for a walk, we still weigh the same and look the same in the mirror the next morning. Yet we know! We know it is important to maintain our bodies, just as we know an oil change in the car has helped, despite the fact that it still looks the same afterwards.

I have been diligent in this area during different periods of my life, but didn’t make it a top priority until 2005 when I was diagnosed with probable MS. Whether that is a correct diagnosis or not, I am not sure, but I am sure that it was an eye opener and that since that time I have taken my health seriously and feel as good physically as I have ever felt. I have taken up distance running, and I work out at the gym for resistance training (weights).

Now, that said, I still have my times of struggle. For example, if I had my way I’d eat a quart of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream every day. And there are times, like right now, when I get discouraged with not seeing the results of my exercise and not being able to give it "enough" time. The topic of this week’s running group was the importance of stretching before and after each run. It’s difficult enough to find time to run and to work out, but adding an extra 15 minutes before and after workout discouraged me, and there was a part of me that didn’t want to keep running, because I don’t have time to do it "right." Fortunately, however, I listened to the voice on the other shoulder that said "Stretch as much as you have time, and just know that whatever you do is better than not doing at all." And there’s a little boy in the group, maybe nine years old, who has already run a 5K four minutes faster than my best time. "I’m too old to be running," my discouraged side tells me, but I choose to listen to my other voice that says "Running is keeping you younger than you would be without it." And after running for an entire year, I had hoped to see more improvement in my speed than I’m seeing. Small disappointments will always beg us to give up. But the goal is not to be fast. The goal is to be healthy!

There are many exercise choices from playing on a sports team to walking or bicycling, and what’s best for you depends on your own preferences and goals. Different exercises work on different parts of the body, so actually a variety is best, but walking around looking for the remote control doesn’t count!

Now, what about food? We know that physical health maintenance is basically twofold. Exercise and right eating. Thankfully right eating doesn’t take more time, but it takes planning, and it takes (sometimes a lot of) will power. We all have our food weaknesses. Often sweets, or between meal snacks, or softdrinks, or chocolate, or caffeine . . . And we know these are bad for us, but often they are addictions. Yes, even sugar is an addiction. Once we clear our body of the sugar or the caffeine, we won’t physically crave it anymore (until we eat it again, and then it starts all over). Breaking any addiction takes self-discipline and time, and it is almost impossible to break an addiction if the food or drink is in the house. We go through a physical withdrawal, much like that of illegally abused substances, and when the withdrawal gets rough, if we have access to the substance, we will eat it. So here’s the key: Plan the grocery shopping for healthy eating. No sweets. No softdrinks. Fresh fruits and vegetables instead of chips. And save the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream purchases for limited special occasions, maybe as rewards for meeting exercise, eating, or even weight goals. Remember if the unhealthy foods are in the house, they will consistently be chosen over the healthy ones, so don’t put them on the grocery list.

Does God really care about our bodies? 1 Cor. 3:16-17.

We hear a lot about keeping our bodies healthy, but it is even more important to regularly exercise and feed our minds. Unlike with our bodies, most of us think we are exercising our minds, but much of what we do is the equivalent of what walking to the mailbox would be for our bodies. We need more. The mind, like our muscles, needs to be challenged regularly. We need to read books that challenge our thinking beyond where it has been before. We need to take a class in something that interests us (through the local community college, or senior center, or parks and recreation . . .) We need to listen to radio talk shows of people whose views are opposite our own. We need to exercise our thinking skills with crossword puzzles or sudoku. We need to be quiet sometimes and truly listen to others’ thoughts and viewpoints. Just like our bodies, our minds need a variety of exercises and challenges. Our brains have tremendous capacity to expand, but if left unchallenged we can miss out on much of the intelligence and richness for which God designed us. And like our many muscle groups, the brain has many different areas that need to be exercised. Of the three, body, mind, and spirit, the mind is of second importance. (Proverbs 24:5-6; 15:14a, 2 Tim 2:15)

Finally we must find the time to regularly feed and exercise our spirit. Our spirits can become weak from lack of exercise just as can our bodies and minds, and like with our minds, most of us think we are getting the exercise we need, but most of us need more. It is not enough to go to church, although that’s very important. It is not enough to read MyChurch blogs. We need to challenge our spirits beyond where we already are, as none of us has reached the prize yet (Phil. 3:14). What can we do to feed our spirit? Besides being a part of a local church body, of most importance to our spiritual health is spending regular personal time alone with God, totally focused on Him, with no interruptions and nothing competing for our attention, and as often as possible, without any time limit. Read a devotional, or read from the Bible. (Start at the beginning of any book of the Bible, and continue that book until you complete it).Talk to Him. Write a letter to Him. Sing praise songs to Him, maybe with your favorite praise CD. And most importantly, give Him time to speak. Be still, be silent, and listen. It is His desire to feed our souls, and He will mold us in His image, if we give Him the time to speak to us. Of the three, body, mind, and spirit, spirit is the most important of all, as it reaches beyond this earthly life. (1 Tim. 4:8)

This is the hard part. We all know we need to exercise our body, mind, and spirit, but there is no time left in our busy schedules! We hear "experts" telling us we need to exercise our bodies at least 30 minutes 3 times a week, our minds at least that often, and our spirits daily. How can we possibly do all of that? We understand that these are important issues for everyone else, and we tell ourselves that one day, when our lives calm down, we will do them too. This will never happen. Our lives will always be filled with whatever is important to us, and we have to work at making the time for our health, physical, mental, and spiritual. How this can work is as individual as we are, but it can be done, and God desires it for all of us. Here are a few practical ideas for finding the time and living a more healthy life:

1. Make out a schedule for the entire month, planning when and how you will exercise each of the three areas. The schedule will surely change sometimes, but make it a schedule that you believe you can really do. Then look at the next day’s schedule every night prior to going to bed so you know tomorrow’s plan.
2. Replace some of the time you spend watching tv or reading MyChurch blogs . . .
3. Learn to say no when you are asked to take on added responsibilities you don’t have the time or desire to do.
4. Plan a carpool schedule with other parents to your children’s sports practices, or driving them to school. etc.
5. Consolidate two of these three areas when appropriate. For example: sometimes a walk can also be personal time with God. Or sometimes what we read to feed our mind might also feed our soul. (But remember we need variety.)
6. Make some of the physical exercise a family event, to spend quality time with the family. Maybe a family bike ride, or a mountain hike, or a family game of basketball.
7. Buy only healthy snacks. When junk food is not readily available, fruits, nuts, and carrots look a lot better!
8. Do not allow yourself to get discouraged when you only get to work out twice one week instead of three times, or when you only spend 5 days during the week in personal time alone with God. That’s OK! It’s 2 days and 5 days more than you would have otherwise! Enjoy the blessings of what you do, and if you’re doing your best, don’t waste energy worrying about not doing enough.
9. If it feels selfish to spend personal time exercising, reading, and praying, realize you are doing it, not just for yourself, but for those who love you. They want you to live a long healthy life, and the more mentally and spiritually healthy you are, the better their lives! Right?