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Health Devotional
Too Fit to Quit
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Ps. 143:8, NIV.
There's no great accomplishment just in living many years," said an active 91-year-old. "Nursing homes are filled with medicated survivors—as if that has to be the fate of those who reach old age. But to live to those ages and still be independent, physically active, and mentally alert, that is an accomplishment."
And that's exactly what Charlotte Hamlin has been doing as she sets walking and cycling records across the country. "The closer we live by the laws of nature," she says, "the better we will feel and the longer we will live." And what are the laws of nature? According to Charlotte, the secret's in the acronym FRESH START: Fresh air, Rest, Exercise, Sunshine, Happiness, Simple diet, The use of water, Abstemiousness, Restoration, and Trust in divine power.
Charlotte, nearing her eightieth birthday, cycles from 50 to 80 miles a day and has proved to millions that we can stay productive and healthy at any age. From 1973 until she retired in 1986 she organized and directed a summer health-screening program, and founded the three C's, a risk evaluation program that tested for potential risk for coronaries, cancer, and CVA (stroke).
In 1986 Charlotte retired as assistant professor of nursing at Andrews University and established Fresh Start, a health-conditioning live-in program. When she was 68 she and her son, Gene, formed a nonprofit organization, Global Trek International.
The same year she walked and cycled from coast to coast, leaving southern California in March 1987 and arriving 67 days later at Charleston, South Carolina. She made a 32-day trek across Europe that fall. The following year her 9,000 miles of pedaling took her through portions of Israel, Pakistan, India, Thailand, China, Japan, Guam, and Hawaii, and she finished at her birthplace in Canada on her seventieth birthday.
An article about Charlotte carried the title "Too Fit to Quit." Not a bad slogan as she pedals around the world, reminding us that God has a work for us to do, regardless of our age.
What could you be doing to help you earn the slogan "Too Fit to Quit"?
There's no great accomplishment just in living many years," said an active 91-year-old. "Nursing homes are filled with medicated survivors—as if that has to be the fate of those who reach old age. But to live to those ages and still be independent, physically active, and mentally alert, that is an accomplishment."
And that's exactly what Charlotte Hamlin has been doing as she sets walking and cycling records across the country. "The closer we live by the laws of nature," she says, "the better we will feel and the longer we will live." And what are the laws of nature? According to Charlotte, the secret's in the acronym FRESH START: Fresh air, Rest, Exercise, Sunshine, Happiness, Simple diet, The use of water, Abstemiousness, Restoration, and Trust in divine power.
Charlotte, nearing her eightieth birthday, cycles from 50 to 80 miles a day and has proved to millions that we can stay productive and healthy at any age. From 1973 until she retired in 1986 she organized and directed a summer health-screening program, and founded the three C's, a risk evaluation program that tested for potential risk for coronaries, cancer, and CVA (stroke).
In 1986 Charlotte retired as assistant professor of nursing at Andrews University and established Fresh Start, a health-conditioning live-in program. When she was 68 she and her son, Gene, formed a nonprofit organization, Global Trek International.
The same year she walked and cycled from coast to coast, leaving southern California in March 1987 and arriving 67 days later at Charleston, South Carolina. She made a 32-day trek across Europe that fall. The following year her 9,000 miles of pedaling took her through portions of Israel, Pakistan, India, Thailand, China, Japan, Guam, and Hawaii, and she finished at her birthplace in Canada on her seventieth birthday.
An article about Charlotte carried the title "Too Fit to Quit." Not a bad slogan as she pedals around the world, reminding us that God has a work for us to do, regardless of our age.
What could you be doing to help you earn the slogan "Too Fit to Quit"?
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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