Balance Necessary in Every Phase of Life

Balance Is a Principle of the Religious Life—Temperance in all things of this life is to be taught and practiced. Temperance in eating, drinking, sleeping, and dressing is one of the grand principles of the religious life. Truth brought into the sanctuary of the soul will guide in the treatment of the body. Nothing that concerns the health of the human agent is to be regarded with indifference. Our eternal welfare depends upon the use we make during this life of our time, strength, and influence.—Testimonies for the Church 6:375 (1900).DG 161.2

Lack of Balance Exhausts Vital Forces—Intemperance in eating and drinking, intemperance in labor, intemperance in almost everything, exists on every hand. Those who make great exertions to accomplish just so much work in a given time, and continue to labor when their judgment tells them they should rest, are never gainers. They are living on borrowed capital. They are expending the vital force which they will need at a future time. And when the energy they have so recklessly used is demanded, they fail for want of it. The physical strength is gone, the mental powers fail. They realize that they have met with a loss, but do not know what it is. Their time of need has come, but their physical resources are exhausted. Everyone who violates the laws of health must sometime be a sufferer to a greater or lesser degree. God has provided us with constitutional force, which will be needed at different periods of our life. If we recklessly exhaust this force by continual overtaxation, we shall sometime be losers. Our usefulness will be lessened, if not our life itself destroyed.DG 161.3

As a rule, the labor of the day should not be prolonged into the evening. If all the hours of the day are well improved, the work extended into the evening is so much extra, and the overtaxed system will suffer from the burden imposed upon it. I have been shown that those who do this often lose much more than they gain, for their energies are exhausted and they labor on nervous excitement. They may not realize any immediate injury, but they are surely undermining their constitution.—Counsels on Health, 99 (1890).DG 162.1

Caution Concerning Overwork—Remember that man must preserve his God-given talent of intelligence by keeping the physical machinery in harmonious action. Daily physical exercise is necessary to the enjoyment of health. It is not work but over work, without periods of rest, that breaks people down, endangering the life forces. Those who overwork soon reach the place where they work in a hopeless way.DG 162.2

The work done to the Lord is done in cheerfulness and with courage. God wants us to bring spirit and life and hopefulness into our work. Brain workers should give due attention to every part of the human machinery, equalizing the taxation. Physical and mental effort, wisely combined, will keep the whole man in a condition that makes him acceptable to God....DG 162.3

Bring into the day's work hopefulness, courage, and amiability. Do not overwork. Better far leave undone some of the things planned for the day's work than to undo oneself and become overtaxed, losing the courage necessary for the performance of the tasks of the next day. Do not today violate the laws of nature, lest you lose your strength for the day to follow.—Mind, Character, and Personality 2:375, 376 (1903).DG 162.4

Proper Periods of Rest Needful—There is danger that the women connected with the work will be required to labor too hard without proper periods of rest. Such severe taxation should not be brought upon the workers. Some will not injure themselves, but others, who are conscientious, will certainly overwork. Periods of rest are necessary for all, especially women.—Evangelism, 494 (1896).DG 163.1

Well-balanced Minds—All the powers of the mind should be called into use and developed, in order for men and women to have well-balanced minds. The world is full of one-sided men and women, who have become such because one set of their faculties was cultivated, while others were dwarfed from inaction. The education of most youth is a failure. They overstudy, while they neglect that which pertains to practical business life. Men and women become parents without considering their responsibilities, and their offspring sink lower in the scale of human deficiency than they themselves. Thus the race is fast degenerating.—Counsels on Health, 179 (1872).DG 163.2

Wise Improvement of Talents a Blessing—There must be no burying of our talents in the earth, to corrode through inaction. A persistent indulgence of self, a refusal to exercise our God-given abilities, will insure our eternal separation from God, the loss of an eternity of bliss. These gifts are bestowed upon us in accordance with our ability to use them, and the wise improvement of each will prove a blessing to us, and will bring glory to God. Every gift gratefully received is a link in the chain which binds us to heaven.—The Signs of the Times, August 18, 1898.DG 163.3