Dee2rites Blog

Tag: exercise

  • Move Your Body!

    “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

    Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.”

    Psalm 139:13-14 (New Living Translation)

                One of the beautiful things about how our bodies were created is the way we can move. Our elbows, fingers and knees work like hinges. Our shoulders and hips are like ball and joints. And in coordination with our muscles and our nervous system, these  parts of our body help us to move about throughout our day. God created us so wonderfully and marvelously and He made us to move!

                However, as we age we tend to be more sedentary and we do not move our body as we were created to do. As a result our muscles grow weaker, our joints get stiffer and we blame it all on aging. However, God did not create us to sit around and do nothing just because we have some higher numbers in our years or more gray in our hair.

                Weight bearing exercises such as walking or using handheld weights are essential for keeping our bones strong. Women especially are susceptible to broken bones because after their childbearing years are over estrogen, a hormone in women that protects bones, decreases sharply which can cause bone loss.

                When I was in my 40s and 50s, I was a member of a lady’s gym and regularly attended classes for Pilates. I believe those classes kept my body in much better shape than it had been in when I was younger. Not only did I do Pilates, I also worked with a trainer on weight exercises. I really loved the Pilates classes, but some of the weight exercises I had to do with the trainer, not so much!

                Now that I’m 75, I have all the aches and pains and movement issues too many people my age also have. After carpal tunnel surgery and a slow recovery, and now possibly needing rotator cuff surgery, I’ve decided I’m changing that.

                Not having a gym convenient to my location now is not an acceptable excuse. I have found an excellent Pilates teacher on YouTube. She even has exercise videos for seniors! And yes I even bought myself a pair of 3 LB handheld weights to start working with weights again and I fully expect to work back up to being able to use my 5 LB weights, and then even my 10 LB weights.

                So I want to challenge you to first, hold me accountable. And then second, won’t you join me? Yes our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made and God fully intended for us to keep moving even in our gray haired years.

    Peace and blessings in our Lord Jesus Christ,

    Dee

    P.S. Don’t laugh at the bronze statue – made it when I was in college! Great art! LOL

  • Good Footwear

                             “Stand therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.” Ephesians 5:14, 15 (21st Century King James Version)

             My husband and I decided that since the holidays are over and work has slowed down, now is a good time to get back in the habit of going to the gym and working out regularly.

            Since I’ve been wearing my good walking shoes to work so much the past few months, I decided it was time replace them. Amazing the difference a new pair of well-fitting walking shoes can make. That knee pain I’d been experiencing lately walking any distance, now gone. I walked a little over two and a half miles this morning and I felt like I could have kept going if I’d had more time.

             I was reminded that just like wearing the right shoe for walking and exercise, we also need the right foundation for our spiritual lives. The Apostle Paul says “having…your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”
        What is the “gospel of peace”? It is the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, that He came in the flesh, He died on the cross for our sin and rose again from the grave, so that we can have peace with God. And the preparation of the Gospel of peace? Not only do we need to know what He’s done for us, but we should also be ready to share that gospel.

                   1 Peter 3:15 says “But in your hearts set Christ apart as holy [and acknowledge Him] as Lord. Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you, but do it courteously and respectfully.” (Amplified Bible)

             “…be ready to give a logical defense to anyone who asks…” Just like the right shoe is necessary, so having a good foundation and understanding about what you believe and why, is necessary. That requires spending time reading and meditating on God’s Word, listening to good Bible teachers, praying and seeking God.

             The Amplified Bible says in Ephesians 6:14-16 “Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral rectitude and right standing with God,
     And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace.
    Lift up over all the [covering] shield of saving faith, upon which you can quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked [one].”
     
             Not only do we need to be ready to share the Gospel of peace with other people, but having that knowledge and preparation, we are ready to face the enemy “with firm-footed stability”. Our best defense against the wicked one is knowing who we are and what we have in Jesus.

        So, I ask how are your shoes?

    Peace and blessings in our Lord Jesus Christ,
    Dee