Your Inheritance
In these troubling economic times, we wonder what we will be able to leave to our children. Will we be able to help them financially – give them a healthy inheritance? Will it be a small amount but one that they could build? Or, are our debts all that we will leave behind? Without a crystal ball, those questions remain to be answered.
However, we leave more to our children than material wealth. During our lives we work and live our lives in a way that keeps our finances strong. Without realizing it, how we live our lives also affects the lives and health of our children. We can leave them a legacy of a good immune systems. What we eat and how active we are will affect on them as well. Just looking at families, we see that in general, overweight parents have children who are overweight; slender parents usually have slender children. In overweight families, slender children show how the children can change their physical inheritance.
Not everyone receives a fortune. For some it may be little money. However, fortunes can be squandered while a little money can be used as what we call “seed” money. Something to start growing our own fortune, or at least a more comfortable life.
Through our genes we receive the tendency toward good health or toward poor health. The life style of our parents impact on how we nurture that seed. If they are active and follow good eating habits, they encourage us to respect and care for our bodies and work for optimum health. They provide us with the best food they can. We grew up very poor, and my dad provided for my mother, seven children, and my maternal grandparents for many years. He was very careful with his spending, but he also cultivated large gardens that provided wonderful fresh vegetables all summer long. My grandparents raised chickens and while red meat was scarce, we had lots of chicken prepared in a variety of delicious ways (plus eggs to eat or use in cooking). My grandfather grew grapes and there was an abundance of a variety of berries in the fields nearby. How fortunate I am that we could have such a healthy diet while being unable to afford many sweets! Parents can encourage physical activity and entertainment, which makes us laugh (it has been said that laughter is the best medicine) but also to raise our spirits to buoy us up during difficult times. They can instill in us a deep faith to counteract the pessimism and negativity so often found in this world.
Just as how material inheritances are used is more important than the amount received, how we use our physical and mental inheritance is vitally important. People who have good immune systems, without handicaps or illnesses, need to appreciate that blessing and strive not only to keep it but to build on it as well, This is especially important when they have children. Just as wealthy people strive to instill a sense of responsibility and good financial habits, healthy parents need to encourage their children to live responsibly, taking care of the wonderful gift of a healthy body and help them build the good habits they need to protect that body and enable it to stay or grow healthier.
There have always been challenges when people strive to succeed financially and there have always been challenges to keeping healthy. We are faced with a shaky economy, but we will work through it. There are scams to take away our money, and marketing to make us buy more stuff than we need. There are health challenges as well, but we meet these challenges by striving to keep our immune systems strong and living a life style of healthy eating, physical and mental exercise, and a belief that we are meant to live joyful, purposeful lives.
This is a good time to consider your physical inheritance. Perhaps it is not as rich as you would desire. However, have you ever considered it before and have you been building on whatever your received, however inadequate you may have thought it was? Have you been inspired by stories of people who did not inherit the best of physical health and actually built on it and improved it? A good example is Jack LaLanne, who at age 94 continues to work out every morning for two hours. Although, admittedly addicted to sugar and junk foods during his childhood, when he was fifteen, he heard a talk on health and nutrition, which had such a powerful influence, it motivated Jack to focus on his diet and exercise habits. He was a pioneer in the health and fitness area and the health clubs he established became the Bally Total Fitness business of today!
Perhaps some of us do not have the best spending habits; some do not have the best health habits. But, it is never too late to learn how to manage your money or your health!
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These articles are published in the Spirit of Bainbridge every three weeks, and mailed to every home and business in Auburn and Bainbridge Townships (zip code 44023).
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