Balance

I was reading about various diets and discovered a large number that encourage bad eating habits. Often these fad diets are endorsed by beautiful celebrities, but in my opinion these food choices only put more stress on our bodies. These diets even warn against bad health, bad breath, and other more unpleasant side effects. This just sounds crazy to me.

I’m not a dietician and I’m not a nutritionist, but I’ve learned through my faith in God that balance is the key to a healthy, productive life.

God asks us to be active and not lazy. But we must also rest.

God asks us to live in the community and help others. But we must also find quiet time alone with Him.

And so we can also find balance in our lifestyle and the food we eat. God provides nutrition for our bodies through a wide variety of foods. As custodians of our bodies, we need to eat to keep ourselves strong. Not too much, not too little. If we find this healthy balance, then we won’t need any fad diet.

Ask God to help you find balance in every part of your life.

World Prayer

As part of my Sunday Prayer post, I thought I’d pray for the hundreds of millions of people from more than 120 countries and regions who got involved in yesterday’s Earth Hour event.
---

Dear Heavenly Father,

We come together and praise your Holy name. We thank you for inspiring us to look after the gifts you give us. These gifts include this very earth. The lands, the seas, the skies, and the animals, birds and fish, all provide us with the sustenance and protection we need.

And your gifts don’t stop there. You have given us each other. This includes not only our close friends and families, but also our neighbours. It includes the people we don’t know and the people we don’t understand. We thank you for all of them because we can all encourage each other, teach each other, and love each other in your name.

And Lord, we praise you for bringing so many people together to gain awareness of our environment. We praise you for the work you continually do through us and for us, whether we know it or not. We pray that this Earth Hour event stays in our minds for a long time so that we remember the little things we can do to make a difference.

In your name we pray,

Amen.

Earth Hour

Tomorrow, Saturday March 27th, between 8.30pm and 9.30pm, will be Earth Hour. We are encouraged to turn off all our lights during this hour to conserve energy. It is hoped that by doing this we gain awareness of climate change and understand the importance of looking after the environment.

Earth Hour is an Australian initiative that began in Sydney in 2007 but is now an international event. Last year thousands of cities and towns in 88 countries took part to demonstrate their commitment to this cause.

I don’t see myself as an activist and I don’t follow many causes, but I do think that looking after our environment is important. Our Lord calls us to be the earth’s custodians. In Genesis 1:28 he names us rulers over all the living creatures. To be a good ruler we must look after all that God has given us, and this includes the environment. Let’s start treating it as both a responsibility and a gift.