What if one part of the body says, “No, I don’t want to work,” then what happens? You will end up with sickness or disease. All parts work together, each one faithfully, obedient to the commands from the head. Aren’t we to do the same?

Now, in the body, each part must work orderly. Thank God, much of what needs to happen for us to stay alive goes on without our direct consciousness. However, our choices of how we live will directly affect the functions assigned for each part. But what about how we deal with the exterior of our body? Does that make a difference?

Does it really matter if I brush my teeth, wash my body, wash and comb my hair? Even nature will teach you that God designed for us to take good care of ourselves. Look at just one example: The beavers. These creatures are very careful to maintain good hygiene. Their survival depends upon it. The hairs must be oiled since they are in the water so much. Parasites must be removed. Teeth must be trimmed or they would grow into the beaver and kill him. Study any creature and you will find many interesting lessons.

Examine only one organ for a moment. The heart must maintain its consistent pumping action so that you and I can breathe and move and live. If that stops, we die. But in order for the heart to work, many other functions must be operating at the same time. For example, there must be exact timing for an electrical impulse to pass through several nodes in order to regulate when that heart will beat. The heart must also pause for milliseconds to refill the right chambers at the right time. If the timing is off, there is not adequate blood flow. This is called arrhythmia. If serious enough, there is not enough blood flow for all the cells to function adequately in the different systems, such as digestion, respiration, urination. I think you see how important little things are.

What about the integumentary, endocrine, excretory, and skeletal systems? Do they require that specific order be maintained? What if your immune system does not have enough white blood cells to combat disease, or too many white blood cells? What if you were missing some bones or muscles? Would your life be affected? We can see, as we study the body more carefully, that our Designer has established a perfect plan for us to live well.

Now all these systems function best when we do our part to keep them in good shape by healthy habits. Eating well, sleeping adequately, drinking good water, getting exercise, fresh air, having a good attitude and trusting in our Creator all work for our well being. If we neglect something, we may not notice negative consequences right away, but they will show eventually.

Look at a simple example. What if you don’t brush your teeth? Well, it doesn’t take long for your breath to get an awful smell, known as “morning breath,” though not always restricted to morning. If this is not dealt with, the bacteria that causes bad smell will destroy the enamel on your teeth. Cavities will appear. If cavities aren’t taken care of, you will experience pain and finally lose your teeth. It’s just not worth it. Take care.

Let us think of some other examples. If you don’t clean the hair, more oily substance is produced, it smells unclean instead of fresh and can become the haven of various parasites. Disgusting!

If you don’t clean the skin, parasitic bodies will do their job. Again, disgusting! What are the long term consequences of this? I strongly suggest that you research this.

God calls us to represent Him in our body because it is to be His temple to dwell in. This calls for physical hygiene, as we have already mentioned, but also mental, and moral hygiene.

Mentally, we must fix our thoughts on worthy things. This will affect our characters. We must discipline our minds to pay attention, to reason from cause to effect, to be able to concentrate on certain things for longer time spans, to develop and use various mental abilities to honor God and be a blessing to humanity.

If someone’s thoughts are erratic, we could say disordered, what do we diagnose the problem as? We would term it mental illness of some description. When people cannot concentrate, when their thoughts jump from hither, thither and yon, when their words and actions are not coherent, or when they are aggressive or morose or phobic, we conclude that something is wrong with them. They are stumbling against the system and order that exist in all of God’s creation.

In moral issues, we see the same thing. The Bible is full of examples of what happens when we do not follow God’s moral plan. In today’s scenario, we see suffering, pain, sorrow, trouble, and disaster. God never intended these things to happen, that is why He gave His moral law for the prevention of these evils.

What should we do? We can only begin with ourselves by asking Christ to come and dwell where He intended to - right in our heart. He has power to change our thoughts, our habits, our inclinations, our life, everything. He will transform us into the people He wants us to be.