"Keepability"
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're having an awesome January 16! According to "This date in sports history", this was a huuuuuge day for Stan Musial in 1952! Got a raise to an amazingly unprecedented salary of $85,000 a year! Considering that this was equivalent to Clayton Kershaw making his $32,500,000 this year (according to MLB Salary rankings) no matter what you make, Stan the Man's salary has to make you feel better about things in your life!
When Babe Ruth signed a contract in '29 that gave him more money per year than the guy in the Oval Office, a reporter asked him whether he thought, considering the Great Depression and all, he deserved as a ball player to make more than President Hoover did. The Bambino answered "What the *%&# has Hoover got to do with it? Besides, I had a better year than he did!"
If you have any resolutions to keep…how’s it going on those? I just found out that January 1 wasn’t the official “New Years Day” until 1752. Before that it was March 1. It’s kind of a bummer because if the year started on Jan 1 and New Years wasn’t until March 1, it gave you three months to practice on your resolutions and get the flops out of your system before you had to seriously do them. If you had to lose weight, it gave you three months to go ahead and get your weight up to an even number before you had to start losing it!
Anyway, one of the keys to keeping your resolutions is to make some you CAN keep. "Keepability" is the secret! Let me give you three suggestions if it’s not too late to add a few…
Eat some chocolate every day. Chocolate is so good for you! Researchers tell us that “the anti-oxidants mop up the damage done by free radicals” (don’t ask). The flavanols in chocolate relax your artery walls and keep platelets from sticking to them. All you need to eat every day is the amount the size of a stack of business cards, 1/3 inch tall.
If you have more than that, you’re on your own.
Laugh everyday in 2015! Laughing is very good for you and good for your heart. A study at the University of Maryland found that people with heart disease are 40% less likely to laugh at funny things that other people. One report said that “ Laughter can be a great workout for your diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles. It massages abdominal organs, tones intestinal functioning, and strengthens the muscles that hold the abdominal organs in place. “ Maybe that’s TMI but it’s good to know.
Pre-school kids laugh 400 times a day while adults only laugh 17 times! What happened?
"Why was 6 afraid of 7?"
"Because 7 8 9!"
Think that's funny? Well, kids do! See the point? (Maybe the point is that kids think stupid jokes are funny and you lose that somewhere along the way)
Let’s see…
Eat chocolate daily.
Laugh daily.
And…
Oh, yeah! Join a Community Group and attend it every week!
On Sundays, we have what we like to call “Community Groups” during the 9:30 to 10:30 hour. They are sort of like small groups that you would attend during the week, except they are on Sundays at church (where you’re already planning to be…We’re trying to make it as easy as possible!). Community groups are a super time to be with other people who love Jesus and become better friends. It’s a time to be in the Word and also get to know other people in your church family better! It’s a time to share and encourage!!
And Community Groups are good for your health! They could even save yourlife!
Harvard researchers studied 7000 people over nine years and found that people with terrible health habits like unhealthy eating (not including daily chocolate!) and smoking but with good friends live a lot longer than people with good habits and no/few friends.
“If you belong to no support groups and then join one, you cut your risk of dying over the next year IN HALF!”
The Journal of the American Medical Association found that people with strong emotional connections were four times less likely to get colds, were less susceptible to viruses and had significantly less mucous than isolated subjects, proving that…
"...unfriendly people are literally snottier than friendly people.”
If you don’t come to a community group, why not start in 2015?
Other people need you!
And your friendship!
And your encouragement!
And it will be good for your health!
And you’ll get fewer colds!
If you decide to not come to one, I’ll go ahead and say it.
Gesundheit!!