Take 10~ Ten Dynamic Golden Rules That Help You Live Longer, Feel Better, and Look Good...series.... Golden Rule 1 part 1

 

Take 10~ Ten Dynamic Golden Rules That Help

 You Live Longer, Feel Better, and Look Good

BY Leo R. Van Dolson, Ph.D, M.P.H.

 

 

Golden Rule 1. The Law of Cause and Effect

The Banquet of Consequences

Susan Soseau goes through life half well. Some days she's "up and at 'em," but all too often she's "down and out." Her doctors can't find anything specific to do about this, other than give her a little extra thyroid. But even taking her pills faithfully doesn't seem to help Susan much. It wouldn't be accurate to say that Susan is really sick, but neither could one say that she's really well. True health and a sense of well-being seem to elude her.

 

Millions limp along through life like Susan. The sad part is that it doesn't have to be this way. It is not God's will that there be so much sickness. In 3 John 2 the inspired writer echoes God's desire for His people: "Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in health" (R.S.V.)

 

Reasoning from cause to effect, we see that what is done today has quite an effect on what tomorrow will be like. Of course, one of the problems with our understanding of health consequences is t hat even "burning the candle at both ends" doesn't cause hear trouble in one week. Most likely it will take about 20 years of smoking 2 packs of cigarettes per day before a fatal case of lung cancer or emphysema develops. So smokers take out a long term mortgage against health - their most valuable personal asset.

 

Samuel Johnson is quoted as saying that "the present is the consequence of the past" and Robert Louis Stevenson is said to have put it this way: "Sooner or later we must all sit down to a banquet of consequences." What kind of banquet is that? Obviously, it's one that we prepare for ourselves. Will your banquet of consequences be luscious? Or will you merely pick away at the dried bones of bitterness, and hungrily settle for the crumbs of defeat? The consequences are your own.

 

Why is there so much illness and disease everywhere? Simply put, when an individual violates the golden rules God has given for the preservation of life and health he/she, naturally, suffers the consequences. But this is not intended to make you feel guilty. The good news is that YOU can make your banquet of consequences the very best possible if you take the law of cause and effect seriously.

 

The golden rules of life and health are written on every nerve, muscle and faculty which have been entrusted to us. They imply the promise of happiness and well-being, but only if they are understood and applied. It is most important, then to make an honest attempt to understand what these golden rules are all about and put them to work in our lives.

 

In studying the significance of the laws of life to see how each applies to specific areas of life style, we could make suggestions, but they might not be the ones that actually fit your particular circumstances and needs. The best approach will be for you to apply these golden rules for yourself.

 

Cause and Effect

The law of cause and effect underlies all the other golden rules. When we violate the laws the Creator has given for the preservation of health and happiness, the inevitable consequences result. These laws work either for us or against us. By following them carefully, we can expect the most out of life. To know them and use them, to work in harmony with them, is to release undreamed of potential- we feel better, get along with others better, and our lives are brought into focus. Each action produces a result on every aspect of life- affecting the physical, mental, social, and spiritual well being.  

 

There's no need to go into great detail about how the golden rule of cause and effect operates. You know about it already. You've had health rules drummed into your ears. "Don't smoke, you'll get lung cancer." "Don't overeat, you'll get obese and die younger." "Drive safely." Most of us have learned that these warning are too true.

 

Donald John puts the results of our choices as these interesting terms: "God made people to work in a certain way. And he no more slaps them down for eating forbidden apples than Henry For does when we use the wrong kind of gas. Disease, hurt feelings, disappointments, are not the result of an immature God getting mad at capricious creatures. They are simply the natural results of man choosing less than the best. Far less."~ Insight July 1974, p. 8.

Not all disease is preventable. One law of life that we cannot do much about is heredity. The unhealthful practices of previous generations have their effects on each of us today. Of course, geneticists are trying to identify and correct the codes of some of the genes that cause health problems but so far, at least, cannot keep them from forming to start with. There also are health problems that can be linked to factors beyond our personal control, such as pollution and nuclear explosions'. But, in spite of these, much illness results from overt violation of the laws of health. Fortunately, God has endowed the human body with the capacity to resist disease, but we must cooperate by learning the laws of health and using them effectively.

The golden rules for healthful living, when followed consistently, pay rich dividends indeed. Do you want to be able to do whatever you've chosen to do in life consistently well and with real efficiency? Do you want to wake up each morning feeling on top of the world? It is possible if you'll let the law of cause and effect work FOR you instead of AGAINST you.
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Come back tomorrow and I will continue with this book in a section about cancer- and things you can do to protect yourself. :O)