Without Missing A Beat

by melissa bradshaw

Here is a riddle for you: What is the most powerful and hardest-working muscle in your body—one that never takes a rest? If you guessed your heart, you are right!

Did you know that your heart was the first organ to form while you were growing inside your mother—at just 16 days? That is even before she knew you were there!

Your heart is one of the most important organs in your body. It helps you run, jump, play, think, and grow. Pause for a moment and make a fist with one of your hands. That is about the size of your heart. When you were born, your heart was only about the size of a walnut. When you become an adult, it will grow to about the size of two hands clasped together.

People sometimes call the heart the “engine” of the body. It pumps blood filled with oxygen and nutrients throughout your body to keep you alive and healthy. Without missing a beat, your heart works 24 hours a day—even while you sleep. It beats around 100,000 times every single day. That is a lot of hard work for a muscle the size of your fist!

Since the heart is so important, we should do everything we can to take care of it and keep it healthy. By eating fruits and vegetables, choosing whole grains, drinking plenty of water, and getting lots of exercise, you help keep your heart strong.

Did you know that laughing helps keep your heart healthy, too? The Bible tells us, “A merry heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones” (Proverbs 17:22). Science agrees. When we laugh, our bodies relax, we take in more oxygen, our blood flows better, and our hearts become healthier.

Exercise is another way to strengthen your heart muscle. When you go outside to run around and play, you boost your heart’s blood flow and help keep your blood vessels flexible and in good condition.

The Bible also talks about your heart—your spiritual heart, which is your mind. While the heart inside your chest beats to keep you physically alive, your spiritual heart beats in time with the will and voice of God. Your mind—guided by the Holy Spirit—helps you make good decisions, forgive others, and demonstrate God’s love. In the same way that the physical heart needs exercise and good health, the spiritual heart needs care as well.

So how do we keep our spiritual hearts healthy?

When you read your Bible every day, talk to God in prayer, sing songs of praise, and think about the many ways God has been good to you, you are exercising your spiritual heart. Your faith and trust in God grow stronger. Another way to strengthen your spiritual heart is to choose kindness and to be helpful and loving toward others.

Sometimes, when you feel angry or jealous, or when you make wrong choices, you can pray the way King David prayed: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). Without missing a beat, God is waiting for us to ask him to live in us and make our hearts clean.

God cares about every part of your heart—your physical heart that keeps you alive and your spiritual heart that helps you follow him. Let us take good care of both and fill them with joy, kindness, and God’s love every day.

This article is provided by My Place with Jesus, a ministry of It is Written, a Christian media ministry based in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has been proclaiming the message of God’s love since 1956. Check out more fun and games on the My Place with Jesus website!