Healthy Body, Healthy Soul

For the past 10 weeks, I have had the awesome opportunity to spend almost every Thursday evening with the great people at New Beginnings as part of my nursing clinicals for public health nursing.  While here, I have been able to participate in some great activities and discussions.  One activity planned for me was to provide health education to the group for two of my sessions.  Last week was the first one! After discussing with the residents and staff about what topics might be interesting, I decided to talk about nutrition.

Everyone who was present, myself included, was at a different stage of life; whether it was never having had a baby, being pregnant now, having just had a baby, or having had a baby a several months ago. So, I focused the information around nutrition at all of these stages: Nutrition in pregnancy, nutrition in postpartum, nutrition for infants, and nutrition for women at all stages of life. Together, we had a great discussion about how to take care of our bodies by eating well!

One of my favorite parts of every visit to New Beginnings is that we have a group Bible story and devotion after dinner. Since my first day here, we have been working through Jesus' life on earth. These devotions are great for all included -- I love (and need!) the chance to review these incredible stories, and even learn some new facts!

The devotion and nutrition discussion -- though they may not seem connected -- actually go hand-in-hand, and it's perfect that we had one right after the other. We often think of good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle to be good things, but earthly things. And yes, ultimately they are earthly things simply because they are not things we will have to worry about in heaven. But while we are still here on earth, we need to remember that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and ought to be treated as such.  When we learn something new about modern medicine and science, it's so exciting because of the possibility to better care for bodies that have been injured or sick.  If we are willing to go so far for injured or sick bodies, why not healthy bodies, too? We should not only clean up the mess and rebuild after the temple has begun to fall. We should work every day to keep it in its strong, beautiful state. It's God's desire that we honor Him with our bodies in every way, every day.  Keep yourself healthy, and keep your temple strong!

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Rachel Kelly is a senior level nursing student at Wisconsin Lutheran College. She has been working at New Beginnings to fulfill her Public Health Nursing clinical. She currently lives in Milwaukee and works as a nursing assistant at Froedtert Hospital, and will be getting married this October. Rachel is excited to graduate in May, and is looking forward to continuing her career at Froedtert Hospital shortly thereafter.