Taking Care of Our Bodies
by Celene Melenciano
Good morning, boys and girls. Happy Sabbath. I’m glad that you’re here, joining us today. Today, I want to introduce you to Mr. Bones. This here is Mr. Bones. And as you can see, Mr. Bones is missing a couple of pieces, right? His right arm, shoulder blade, and his clavicle fell off. He is very old. I bought him for my children for them to, you know, have an idea of how our bodies are made.
So, when I took him out of his little box today, he fell apart. But Mr. Bones made me think of something. How do we take care of our bodies? I mean, I know that we can function without one arm and one hand. You know, we could probably function without a leg. I mean, there’s a lot of things that we can do when we’re missing bits and pieces of our bodies, right? But are we complete? No, we’re not complete. And, you know, it actually does take a little bit of work on our part to stay healthy.
This is a brand new year. This is the first Sabbath of this year. And a lot of people are making what we call New Year’s resolutions or goals for this new year. And most people will make a goal of getting fit, of losing weight, of going to the gym, you know, and trying to exercise and stay healthy. But somewhere along the way, along the year, a lot of people just stop doing it, you know? But we stop doing it not because we want to, for the most part, we get busy. There are other things that we do. But maybe it’s just not as important as it should be.
You know, when God gave us and made us and gave us our body, he told us to take care of it, right? And do you remember how we take care of it? It’s by exercise. Yes, you can run, you can walk. In school, you do your recess and run around and jump around, do jump rope or play races or hang on the monkey bars. You know, there’s just so many ways to stay fit. But it’s not just exercise that our body needs. Our bodies also need good nutrition, good foods. You know, you have to eat your fruits, your vegetables. You have to drink a lot of water. There’s other foods that you can eat that are also good for you, nuts and other seeds and stuff. But we also have to be careful what we eat. We’re not supposed to have too much sugar because sugar makes some of our organs work a lot more, a lot harder. And sometimes that’s what makes us sick.
Okay, staying fit, staying healthy, I don’t even want to say fit, I want to say healthy also requires us, we need to rest. And yes, we rest at night, right? We sleep, but sometimes during the day, we might need a little nap here and there. And it’s not just sleep that we need, we also need to relax. We need to learn to stay away from certain things, like our TVs. We should take a break from our TVs, our video games, take a break from our video games, our phones. Sometimes we’re on our phones, even you little kids as well as adults, we’re on Instagram, on Facebook and all that stuff. And we need breaks from those things too. Maybe you can read a book or ask your mom and dad to read the Bible stories or read some funny stories or read a poem. What about writing a poem or writing a story? That also helps you relax. What about just listening to music? Just sit back, relax, and listen to music. And it doesn’t always have to be music with words in them where people are singing. What about just music with instruments, just piano or just guitar or classical music so you can hear the different instruments? Pay attention to those. And just relax with that. Maybe go outside and just sit in the grass and just pay attention to the trees, the flowers, maybe your pets or maybe you’ll see some insects. And just pay attention to the things that God made for us to enjoy, that help us relax.
God has made us complete, not just in our bodies, you know, with all our bones. And did you know that our bones start off with over 800 in our bodies? But by the time you’re full adults, you’re getting over 200 bones. And that’s because some bones fuse together to become one. You know, that’s how amazing and how complete God has made our body. But it’s not just the bones. Again, it’s your organs, it’s your brain, it’s the other things inside, and we need to keep them healthy.
So this year, let’s just concentrate, not just on doing what we have to do, going to school, having fun, you know, learning things from our parents, from school, from our friends, from our family, from our church, but also let’s concentrate on staying healthy, okay? And the best way to do it is, of course, asking God to help us to help you do something new. Maybe learn to ride a bike. That is a very healthy habit. And if that is a goal that you have for this year, that’s awesome. Ask God to help you learn to ride that bike, to give you the motivation to continue until you can do it.
And always remember that everything that God gave us to make us complete in our bodies is amazing. Because he wants the best for us and he wants us to be strong. And not again, not just physically, but also in him. Don’t forget that for us to be complete, we need to have a relationship with him as well. We need to pray, and we need to stay focused on his love for us.
Let’s go ahead and have a word of prayer, boys and girls. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the love you give us. Thank you for this brand new year and for helping us stay healthy. Not just with our physical bodies, but also with our minds and our nutrition. And also stay connected to you to have a great relationship with you. We pray that you continue to guide these children and everything they do. And that they remember that you are always by their side. We pray these things in your name. Amen. Have a wonderful week, boys and girls. We’ll see you next time.