Our bodies don't work too well without adequate exercise; neither do our minds! Ever go back upstairs to remind yourself of why you originally went downstairs? Are names, numbers and appointments you remembered effortlessly in the past becoming increasingly elusive? Do you sometimes wonder if you're “losing it?”
Doctors say that in most cases mindless hours in front of television, avoiding intellectual stimulation and exertion, result in the shrinking of our mind's capacity, including our memory. “Brain fitness” experts assure us that our brains don't grow old from working too hard, but from hardly working at all. “Brain plasticity” - the capacity of our mind to retain or regain flexibility - is a matter of exercise. When you just let your mind “vegetate” and don't stretch it with thoughtful reading, rational thinking, intelligent analysis and conversation, it loses plasticity and becomes old at any age. On the other hand, if you challenge your mind regularly, your brain gets younger as you get older (the problem is not how old your brain is, but how old your thinking is).
2 Timothy 2:15 offers a great way to strengthen your mind, : “Do your best, study to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth” (NRSV). The word “study” in Greek text means to exert yourself mentally, to push your mind to study God's Word. Like a “worker,” make it work! God promises that if you meditate on His Word daily you'll become “... like a tree planted by streams of water... which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers” (Psalm 1:3 NIV).
Don't let your mind “wither,” exercise and strengthen it by studying the Scriptures! Please honor God by joining our Monday night adult Bible Study. We begin the book of Romans on June 1. There’s good mental exercise. . . and yummy munchies too!
That’s Monday nights from 6:30—8:00 pm. Pastor Sherer
