Health, wellness, and its origin story
In the beginning, God provided His creation with the basic principles for healthy living, and those principles are healthy eating, physical activity, and rest. After God made the animals, He made Adam and Eve. He didn’t just speak them into being as He did the animals; He made Adam and Eve with His own hands and put them in a beautiful and fruitful garden that He had prepared just for them (Gen. 1:27–29 and 2:7–9).
His plan was for them to work it and to care for all the plants and trees in the garden (Gen. 2:15), which grew so abundantly. He made their bodies specifically to be able to use energy and nutrients from those foods for physical activity. Best of all, in His perfect world, He walked in the garden with Adam and Eve in joy and restful fellowship and gave us His example of rest (Gen. 2:2–3 and 3:8).
Perfect balance
In the beginning, it was heaven on earth — and the perfect balance of healthy eating, physical activity, and rest. God created us to be healthy and well. He made provisions for that in the Creation’s garden. After the Fall, however, mankind went its own way. I hate it when we do that! Sin forever changed our world and our relationship with the God who created us for wholeness.
Health fads will come and go. But the original instruction book for our bodies was written in the mind of God before the world began and then literally into our very DNA. God’s handprints are all over us. He made our metabolism, hormones, brain chemicals, and muscles — every bodily system — to work with the gifts of nature, food, activity, and rest, which He ordained from the beginning.
The whole foods of nature’s bounty,
taken in moderation for energy and nutrition,
sustain body systems.
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Physical activity burns the energy and
regulates body systems.
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Adequate rest from
prayer, meditation, relaxation, and sleep
restores and renews body systems.
Food for sustenance, activity for regulation, and rest for restoration are good gifts from God, given to us in the beginning to work with our body’s design. The abuse of any of these gifts threatens our physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
Your own body has the answers for the wholeness that God intended. Listen to it! Forget the fads and listen to your Creator and Heavenly Father. By returning to the biblical principles of healthy eating, physical activity, and rest found in Genesis chapters 1 through 3, we can reclaim the lifestyle that God meant for our good.
As a helpful resource, I have lots of articles on healthy ingredients and recipes that you can implement into your daily life.
If you’d like to dig deeper into my journey of discovering God’s plan for health and wellness, check out my book, Made For Paradise: God’s Original Plan for Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Rest.
