A Merry Medicine

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

Proverbs 17:22

I have been doing some reading and researching lately about health: eating healthier, exercising, and just living an overall healthy lifestyle.  One of the things that I keep coming across is the simple truth given to us in this verse.  I have seen “a merry heart” coming up in discussions about helping your heart, lowering your blood pressure, easing or eliminating everything from headaches to heartburn, and strengthening the brain.

Just being a happy, contented person can cure or, at the very least, help with many diseases and ailments.  How do we get this “merry heart medicine?”  Being thankful and content seems to go a long way toward being a merry person.  When we are not thankful, we get to thinking that we deserve whatever it is that we have or want.  When we are not content with what the Lord has given us, we tend to become greedy for things that He does not want us to have.  Simply remembering that everything we have because of the mercy and grace of the Lord.

Forgiveness also seems to play a part.  If we are not forgiving people, we will eventually become bitter.  And bitterness is something that literally just eats away at us, including our physical health.

Happiness, thankfulness and forgiveness all work together to make us “merry,” and help us – like a medicince.

On the other hand, “a broken spirit drieth the bones.”  As much as being a happy, contented person can help our health, a broken spirit can hurt it.  There are people who seem to be plagued by illness, and their main problem is their broken spirit.  In some cases, the broken spirit is self-inflicted and in some cases, it is broken by someone else.  But whatever the reason, the result is the same: “drieth the bones.”

The Bible is profitable for “doctrine…,” but in addition to doctrine, the Bible is also profitable for practical, everyday things.  If you need a medicine, try a merry heart!