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![]() ![]() ![]() The Health Principle of TEMPERANCE
![]() The best condition of health largely depends on temperance. Temperance means moderation and abstinence. Moderation is to be in all things affecting our daily lives – whether in work, eating, drinking, thinking, etc., and abstinence is to be in all things which are harmful to our health.
Temperance in diet is rewarded with mental and moral vigor; it also aids in the control of the passions. Overeating is especially harmful to those who are sluggish in temperament. If you have problems overeating, then you should eat less and take plenty of physical exercise. There are men and women of excellent natural ability who do not accomplish half what they might if they would exercise self-control in the denial of appetite.
Many of those who write and give lectures fail on this point. After eating heartily, they give themselves to sedentary occupations, reading, study, or writing, allowing no time for physical exercise. As a consequence the free flow of thought and words is hindered. They find that they cannot write or speak with the force and intensity necessary in order to reach the heart, and their efforts become tame and fruitless.
Here is a suggestion for all whose work is sedentary or chiefly mental: at each meal take only two or three kinds of simple food, and eat no more than is required to satisfy hunger. Take active exercise every day, and see if you do not receive benefit. Even those who are engaged in active physical labor would have better health if they would practice self-control in eating and drinking.
Some wish that an exact rule could be prescribed for their diet. They overeat, and then regret it, and so they keep thinking about what they eat and drink. This is not as it should be. One person cannot lay down an exact rule for another. Everyone should exercise reason and self-control, and should act from principle. And remember, the less the attention is called to the stomach, the better. If you are in constant fear that your food will hurt you, it most assuredly will. Forget your troubles and think of something cheerful when you eat.
Also in regards to temperance, we should be careful not to take upon ourselves burdens that others can and should bear. We should encourage a cheerful, hopeful, peaceful frame of mind for our health depends upon it. The work that God requires us to do is not to prevent our caring for our health. The more perfect our health, the more perfect will be our labor. When we overtax our strength, and become exhausted, we are liable to catch a cold, and at such times there is danger of disease assuming a dangerous form. We must not leave the care of ourselves with God, when He has placed that responsibility upon us.
The apostle Paul uses the example of exercise to teach an important spiritual lesson: "They which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize." 1 Corinthians 9:24. In the warfare in which we are engaged, all may win who will discipline themselves by obedience to right principles. The practice of these principles in the details of life is too often looked upon as unimportant --a matter too trivial to demand attention. But in view of the issues at stake, nothing with which we have to do is small. Every act casts its weight into the scale that determines life's victory or defeat. The scriptures bids us, "So run, that ye may obtain." Verse 24.
With our first parents, intemperate desire resulted in the loss of Eden. Temperance in all things has more to do with our restoration to Eden than many realize. Anything that lessens our physical health enfeebles the mind, and makes it less capable of discriminating between right and wrong. We become less capable of choosing the good, and have less strength of will to do that which we know to be right.
Pointing to the self-denial practiced by the contestants in the ancient Greek games, the apostle Paul writes:
"Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 1 Corinthians 9:25-27.
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