Over the last two years, I have given a great deal of thought to my health and nutrition. My weight began to climb higher and higher until I decided to do something about it. I started exercising, and my weight began to come down, but the greatest loss didn’t come until I took control of my nutrition. Diet is 80-90% of being healthy; understanding and accepting this has helped me improve my fitness tremendously.
This is an area of life that translates well into spiritual parallels: growth as a Christian requires a healthy diet. Just as nutritional needs vary from person to person, spiritual dietary needs can vary as well. Infants need milk to grow; young Christians need milk, too. Young Christians don’t need to be delving into deep studies of atonement theories or studying the so-called church fathers. Their time is better spent reading the Bible and learning the books, characters and themes found in Scripture. As children age, they take on more and more solid foods to help them grow stronger, but they need to be eating quality foods to maintain good health (Hebrews 5:12). For Christians to grow in the faith, they must move beyond milk and focus on quality studies so that they may maintain a healthy faith. Leave the junk food of worldliness behind, and hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6).
