Participants: Agatha Thrash, John Champen, Don Miller
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000136
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00:01 Philippians 4:5, says that our moderation should be known
00:06 of all men. 00:07 This is a great part of the establishment of good life style 00:13 I'm Agatha Thrash from Uchee Pines Institute, 00:16 and at Uchee Pines, we deal quite a lot with life styles 00:20 and with moderation and with habit formation. 00:23 For the next half an hour, we'll be talking with you about 00:26 moderation and habits and how to establish them... 00:29 how to break them once they've been established. 00:31 Join us, won't you? 00:53 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health" with Dr. Agatha Thrash 00:59 of Uchee Pines Institute, and now here is your host 01:00 Dr. Thrash. 01:04 As God created us, we had no difficulty in being moderate 01:10 in all of our habits. 01:11 Actually, where Philippians 4:5 speaks of moderation, it also 01:17 speaks of it in the context of the Lord is at hand... 01:21 And so, we can believe by that, that what is going to happen to 01:26 world right close to the second coming of the Lord may be 01:30 characterized a lot by immoderate behavior. 01:33 And so, we thought that a program on moderation would be 01:38 well-received and would be very beneficial. 01:39 And so, John Champen is here with me today. 01:43 He is one of my co-workers at Uchee Pines. 01:46 He is in administration and also does health education and 01:51 he will start us out by talking about some things having to do 01:56 with moderation... John Champen 01:58 Thank you, Dr. Thrash. 01:59 Moderation, few people think about moderation. 02:02 It's not something that comes to most people's minds. 02:05 They live a life that is responding to stimulus, their 02:10 habits, their desires... 02:11 And they go on like that and they're not aware that there is 02:14 any such thing that they need to comply with that would be 02:17 beneficial to them. 02:18 There is a law out there called "the law of diminishing returns" 02:22 Many feel that if one piece of pie is good, then 2 pieces 02:25 might be twice as good and 4 is 4 times as good. 02:29 But we know that as we increase our eating of something sweet or 02:35 whatever the thing might be, our satisfaction tends to 02:39 go down instead of going up as we suspect that it would. 02:42 But the problem is that because of this habit that many have 02:46 formed, they are no longer moderate... 02:49 Everything is done in great amounts and in excess. 02:54 The law of diminishing returns strikes home and then people 03:00 begin to become aware that something else needs to 03:03 take place... sickness comes in and problems in their families 03:08 and they don't know why that is so. 03:09 There is not moderation in drinking and in eating and in 03:16 looking and in time spent with others in social activity. 03:21 Eating and drinking... we know when that's in excess it leads 03:25 to obesity, it leads to drunkenness... 03:27 It leads to all kinds of problems. 03:28 And yet, it continues to go on. 03:32 Most people are in some way intemperate in this area. 03:36 Even in looking, we should look at those things which are good 03:42 and if you do watch television, then why not look at 3ABN? 03:48 That's a nice way to practice moderation there. 03:52 And working... the Scripture tells us that it is 12 hours a 03:56 day when man should be working. 03:59 Some people will put in 14, 18 hours a day. 04:04 And, of course, their body tells as a result of that... 04:07 excess, excess, excess. 04:10 You can't accomplish it all. 04:13 There's always more to be done. 04:14 So, moderation is needed there but many are not sure how to 04:18 get a hold on that or how to make a change. 04:21 Some feel that if I just had more leisure... 04:24 If I had some more time to myself... 04:26 I would do well, I'd feel better 04:28 I'd like to take a long vacation how about 6 months where I can 04:32 just lay on the beach, take it easy and just watch the waves 04:36 go by... and this will make me feel better. 04:41 Well, after a day or two of that, a certain amount of 04:44 restlessness comes in. 04:47 We recognize that moderation even in resting 04:50 is very important. 04:52 Another area is talking... 04:56 Yes, people talk too much. 04:58 They need to spend a little more time in listening. 05:02 Sometimes, we talk so much that the Lord can't even get to us. 05:08 He can't get our attention. 05:10 So we need to watch how much we talk... 05:14 and spend a little more time in listening. 05:17 And, of course, there are others who are not happy unless they 05:20 are in the society of others. 05:22 They have to be in a crowd continuously... 05:24 and, as such, they become immoderate. 05:28 Social interaction is very important but, as we are told in 05:34 Scripture, there is a time and place for everything. 05:36 There is also a time needed for reflection for searching 05:41 one's heart, for coming up higher. 05:44 Moderation is needed in all of these things. 05:47 Few people are aware that they need to spend time in getting 05:51 their lives together so that 05:53 moderation has its rightful place. 05:55 Let's turn to the screen now and take a look at 05:58 a couple of points here. 05:59 We are told that all health principles depend on moderation. 06:04 The maximum benefit of each health principle 06:05 requires moderation. 06:10 Water is good but you can drown from water. 06:11 A young lady, just the other day, took some ecstasy and got 06:18 very thirsty, and of course, it makes you thirsty and she drank 06:21 water, drank water and drank water and she became water 06:24 intoxicated and she lost her life. 06:26 Even something good that God has provided for us can be 06:30 taken to excess. 06:31 So, moderation is needed for every health principle. 06:34 And once it is established, it then is under the control 06:37 of our conscience. 06:38 Moderation is something that the Lord wants us to build 06:42 into our lifestyle. 06:43 It becomes a part of us and once it becomes a part of us, 06:47 then the conscience becomes tender to the voice of the Lord 06:50 speaking to us, and tapping us on the shoulder, as it were, 06:53 as if... well, you don't need that extra piece, that extra 06:57 glass, that extra plate, this is enough. 07:00 And we learn to respond to that as we make it a principle 07:03 a part of our lives. 07:05 We are told also that moderation means victory 07:10 over inclination. 07:11 We need to be victorious over our feelings. 07:15 This is an area that we struggle with... 07:18 but moderation will help us. 07:20 As we learn the principles of moderation and why we want to 07:24 be moderate so that we can please the Lord and to live a 07:27 healthful life so that we can serve Him according to his will 07:30 And then, that victory is ours. 07:33 And it can remain ours day, after day, after day... 07:36 problem, after problem, after problem. 07:39 And finally, moderation is a heavenly principle. 07:44 It comes from the Lord. 07:45 Let all things be done in moderation. 07:49 This is God's way for us and I'm glad that it is. 07:52 Aren't you Dr. Thrash? 07:53 Yes I am, you know it protects us. 07:55 Moderation protects us from so many things. 07:57 So many diseases like diabetes, and obesity and hypertension. 08:02 We are protected from emotional and mental problems 08:07 and physical illness. 08:09 In the beginning, it was not as it is now. 08:12 Now, we see people overdoing on everything that we can 08:17 possibly do. 08:18 If we are going to reprove somebody, we overdo it 08:21 and parents will overdo their reproof to the point 08:24 of child abuse. 08:25 And, also we know that people who are working... 08:29 they overwork to the point that every muscle aches. 08:32 Women will be cleaning their houses and they will just 08:35 keep on working, and working, and working until 08:37 they are ready to drop and every muscle aches. 08:41 So we need to recognize that God did not create this world 08:45 in that way. 08:46 He does not intend that we should have that kind of problem 08:49 Even the grasses and the shrubs did not overgrow 08:54 in the Garden of Eden. 08:56 The Lord had set the trees with clear grass under them. 09:00 And the trees actually had an enzyme that would inhibit 09:05 the growth of things close up to them. 09:08 That was the moderation the God built into this earth. 09:12 Even in the natural world and our experiment with sin has 09:16 caused even the natural world to overflow its bounds... 09:20 so that now we have a bramble patch and we have a thicket 09:26 instead of a nice forest but God wants us to be moderate 09:29 in all things. 09:32 And with me now is Don Miller and Don Miller is going to talk 09:35 with you about some things having to do with habits 09:37 and moderation. 09:39 Don Miller. 09:40 You know, we all have habits and we need to look at how 09:43 our habits form. 09:44 Just what makes them a habit in the first place. 09:46 I'm not going to go into the neurology and pathways and 09:50 neurons and all these things in the brain. 09:52 But what do we do... what is it in our stimulus, in our 09:56 surroundings that make things become habitual. 09:59 Why do we learn to do things? 10:00 Now we have to, at the very beginning of this thing, realize 10:03 that there are good habits and there are bad habits. 10:06 There are things that we want to learn, or other people want us 10:09 to learn... like correct behavior. 10:11 I remember years ago... 10:12 now I want go just give parents, if there are any parents out 10:15 there with young children... 10:17 The best way to form, for me, a good habit. 10:21 We were at another family's home 10:26 My family was at another family's home and my father 10:30 did something in that environment that he was 10:33 accustomed to doing but that my mother considered 10:37 antisocial-type of behavior. 10:39 And I remember her saying to me... 10:41 "Donny, never do that in public. " 10:45 And you know something, I never have. 10:48 That one word from my mother spoken solemnly and spoken 10:52 directly to me, made an impact that has never gone away. 10:55 But I want us to look at some of the factors in the building 10:59 of habits in our experiences. 11:02 One of the first ones... and what we are going to do is 11:05 we are going to build the word "habit" here. 11:08 The "H" word... that is how often do we get the stimulus 11:17 that causes the thing to happen to us, or to build up the habit. 11:21 I remember as a child, one of my favorite radio programs in 11:25 Cincinnati had a commercial for an airline called 11:28 "Northwest Orient Airlines. " 11:30 And the jingle went "Northwest Orient.. BONG.. Airlines" 11:36 And that very jingle, hearing it every morning by "Stan Matlock" 11:40 on the radio, put something in my mind that I grew up loving 11:45 the thought of going to the Orient. 11:46 I love the Orient today. 11:48 I've lived there. 11:49 I love Oriental food. 11:50 And I believe it was all because of that one little jingle. 11:53 Jingles and advertizing slogans... 11:56 You see advertisers understand this principle. 12:00 How often this frequency of a stimulus with the reward of 12:05 a good feeling... pretty soon these things become household 12:08 words and we become habituated to whatever the thing is. 12:13 All right, the second thing that is going to cause us 12:19 to form habits... we are going to have to put a big "A" here... 12:23 is the amount of reward. 12:25 How much reward do we get for what we're putting into 12:29 our efforts. 12:30 I remember in boot camp, the military, they make you do 12:34 certain things and normally it was negative response or 12:37 negative rewards... if you don't do it, we're going to do this 12:40 to you but sometimes, if you do this, you're going to get 12:43 this nice thing. 12:44 And the more the reward was, the amount of the reward, 12:49 the more likely we are to say "yes that's what I want from 12:53 my experience. " 12:54 But now we have to be very, very careful in recognizing... 12:57 Do we recognize the response as a reward? 13:02 We may have a child in our home 13:05 and the child... they do a behavior, and we think 13:08 to reward them, we are going to do this thing... 13:12 but to them, that's not a reward that's a punishment. 13:15 We have to make sure the recipient recognizes the reward 13:19 as truly that... a reward. 13:21 The third one, I have sort of characterized or named the 13:26 "bother factor. " 13:30 And this is a pretty important one, the "bother factor. " 13:31 It's how much resistance is there to receiving the reward. 13:41 You have to do an action to receive the reward. 13:45 I feel like this is the main one in what we call "peer pressure" 13:49 Children don't have to do much to make their peers happy. 13:52 They can do any silly, stupid thing sometimes to make 13:55 everybody happy. 13:56 It's a little bit tougher to do what mama and daddy says. 14:00 It's a little bit tougher to do what society, the policeman, 14:04 the teacher says... 14:05 but the easy way out is sometimes the way that our 14:08 habits will take. 14:09 What is the easiest way? 14:12 Basically, humans work on that response level. 14:15 Whatever is easiest, that's what we want. 14:17 The fourth one is "isolation. " 14:22 That is a very interesting habit-former. 14:27 And, we can see this one in, let's say, communist countries 14:32 before the Iron Curtain fell, when they only had that one 14:35 newspaper, the "Pravda. " 14:36 And it put out just its storyline... 14:39 And they got no other news. 14:41 As a matter of fact, I was in Ukraine a few years ago 14:44 talking to a gentleman in the military there, the 14:47 Ukrainian Army, and he said... 14:50 As a matter of fact, the person I was staying with said the same 14:53 thing... he said that before communism fell, they perceived 14:57 Americans as being ugly, 2- headed monsters. 15:01 And what did we think about them 15:04 I've been there now... 15:05 They're wonderful, lovely people 15:07 But it's that isolation of the truth or the isolation of 15:11 stimulizations... 15:13 If you receive just one stimulus 15:15 that's where you're going to go with your response. 15:17 And so, as we receive that one thing over and over 15:20 and over again without any other stimulus, 15:23 that will be what will become habituated too. 15:26 And the last one is the "time delay. " 15:30 How much time is there between the stimulus and our reward. 15:37 And we find these... as a matter of fact, every one of these 15:40 things will be tied up within the paradigm of our senses. 15:45 "I want something quick. " 15:48 I remember one time I was at someone's home and 15:49 the woman's daughter was sort of lounging on the couch 15:50 and her head was hanging off and one arm and one leg 15:55 was on the back of the couch 15:57 and she says, "entertain me mom, I'm bored. " 16:00 She wanted some instant gratification. 16:03 She wanted somebody to do something for her. 16:05 And so there is time delay. 16:07 If we can get that response right away, we are more apt to 16:10 become habituated to it. 16:12 I think this might be the big one for cocaine. 16:15 They say that people who take cocaine, that first hit is 16:18 like an unbelievable experience. 16:21 And they are always going back looking for that first response. 16:24 There was no time delay and it was an instant response. 16:27 And, in having this instant response, they formed a habit. 16:33 These habits that we form in our lives are pretty strong habits 16:37 I want to mention one more social studier... a man who 16:41 was into studying the formation of habits 16:46 and this was a habit called, or basically a form of habits 16:50 "conditioned response. " 16:51 You've all heard about the man, his name was "Pavlov. " 16:54 He was a Russian social scientist... 16:56 And what he would do, is every time he would feed the 17:00 dog, he'd ring a bell. 17:01 Feed the dog, ring a bell. Feed the dog, ring a bell. 17:03 Feed the dog, ring a bell. Ring a bell. 17:05 Well, when he would just ring the bell after that dog got used 17:09 to connecting the food with the bell, he would find that 17:13 the dogs all salivated. 17:15 The saliva started flowing because they heard the bell. 17:18 We get ourselves habituated to things by the repetition, 17:22 by their intensity, by their time delay, by their reward, 17:26 by isolation... 17:27 All these things will give us a strong habit. 17:30 We need to make sure we are forming good habits because 17:33 they are formed the very same way... Dr. Thrash. 17:35 Yes they are, and habits can be a blessing to us or they can 17:40 be really a curse, as you just mentioned. 17:42 Now with habits, Merriam- Webster has a definition here 17:48 of habit and I'd like just to read this... 17:50 "A behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition. " 17:54 Well that helps us to know that a habit can be 17:55 broken in the same way. 17:58 You can break a habit by frequently repeating not doing 18:02 that thing in the way that you had been doing it that made 18:05 you have the habit. 18:06 You can change any behavior that you have developed yourself 18:11 Now, you may need the help of others and there are some 18:15 people whose habits are so firmly entrenched, 18:17 that they cannot break it by themselves. 18:20 Drug addicts are of this kind... 18:21 but many people who are addicted to food will have the same 18:25 kind of problem. 18:26 They cannot break that habit without some human help. 18:30 And so, we can say, let the tempted one who is struggling 18:33 with some habit, go to a trusted friend and say... 18:37 "Keep me with you, I am powerless from the snare to go. 18:41 Do not let me out of your sight until I am strong enough to 18:44 stand alone. " 18:45 Now I wish that were my quote but Ellen White did that quote 18:48 and I am happy to have it because it lets us know 18:52 that there are some people who should not feel embarrassed 18:57 at all to ask someone to be with them until they break a habit. 19:01 And, of course, we've probably had experiences along those 19:05 lines where somebody in our circle of friends used us as 19:11 the person who would be with them or that they would 19:14 "hang out with" until they had broken the habit. 19:15 It's a good way and you should feel that a very sacred duty 19:21 when someone comes to you and asks you to do that very thing. 19:25 Then another thing is that the tempted person can pray. 19:29 If you have a habit that you don't want to have 19:31 and you would like to see it broken, then pray about that. 19:35 And God has told us that if we will FLEE, if we will RUN from 19:42 the temptation, that this will often give us the victory. 19:46 We also know that if we CRY OUT to the Lord, that 19:50 that that will often give us the victory. 19:51 So those two things, to FLEE, to leave the scene... 19:54 and the second, to CRY OUT... 19:56 And another is, if you can't cry out and you can't leave, 20:00 you can still resist... 20:02 And the Bible tells us that if we RESIST temptation, 20:05 the devil will flee from us. 20:07 So, these three things can be used very nicely to break a 20:13 habit and to resist temptation and to be victorious over those 20:17 things that we want to change. 20:19 Now the Bible tells us that "The prudent man foreseeth evil 20:24 and hideth himself. " 20:25 Now what that means is this... 20:26 Let us say you are a young person and you are tempted with 20:30 tobacco, or you are tempted with some drug, 20:33 or you are tempted with alcohol 20:35 or with a sexual experience, 20:37 whatever it may be... 20:39 The wise person will think... "That will lead down a road that 20:44 I don't want to go. " 20:45 And so, you should resist that. 20:48 Wise man foresees evil, hides himself from it... do that. 20:54 If you see a habit forming in yourself, or even the threat 21:00 of it forming in yourself, 21:01 foresee the evil and hide yourself from it. 21:05 It will do very much for you. 21:07 Now, at the same time that you are changing a habit, 21:10 do some other change as well. 21:12 It's good to change a comfortable chair where you sit. 21:17 It's good to change some other things in your program at 21:21 that same time. 21:22 Maybe you should change your diet and go on an all 21:24 raw diet for a few days. 21:26 Or an all fruit diet for a few days. 21:29 And many of these things can be a help. 21:32 Now Don Miller is going to develop this theme a 21:35 little further, of breaking the habit. 21:37 Don Miller. 21:39 You know, we all form habits in various ways in our lifetimes 21:43 and I've formed some pretty strong habits in my life and 21:45 there are certain experiences and I always hearken back to my 21:50 military experience because in the military, you learn habits 21:53 really strongly. 21:54 I still lace my shoes left over right. 21:57 I still, even when I get dressed as a civilian, I make sure 22:01 my shirt is lined up with my belt which is lined up 22:04 with my fly. 22:05 Everything is perfectly lined up because that's how I was taught. 22:08 It was drilled into me. 22:10 I can still not chew gum because Marines don't chew gum. 22:14 There are things that I learned which I don't 22:15 think are bad habits. 22:17 There are things though, that I learned in my military 22:20 experience, that were not the best habits in the world. 22:23 And so, I tried. I tried so hard to get these things out of my 22:30 habit experience and what I finally had to do because 22:33 whereas I was out of the military... 22:35 the military was not yet out of me. 22:38 So what I had to do one day, I made a nice funeral pyre 22:42 and I brought all my uniforms... 22:45 If there are any ex-marines, I'm sorry... 22:46 I brought my blues, I brought my whites, I brought my greens 22:50 I brought my white shoes. 22:52 I brought my accoutrements. 22:53 I brought everything! 22:55 Laid them on that thing, doused them with gasoline... 22:57 WOOF... and set them on fire. 22:59 And it was amazing the difference that made in my 23:02 experience... to see a thousand dollars worth of uniforms 23:05 going up in smoke... it seemed to help. 23:07 But there is something else I want to do. 23:09 I want to go back to the acronym basically, we made it an acronym 23:11 on the board here and talk about what happens once we've got a 23:13 habit formed... how do we get out of this habit. 23:21 The first thing we've got to do ... we talked about how often 23:25 do we get rewarded by this habit. 23:28 First of all, we have to break the frequency. 23:30 So let's say we break the frequency of our habit. 23:33 So, we can erase the "H." 23:35 But what's left? 23:37 Well, there is still a bit of it there. 23:40 And so we've got to take the next step in our experience. 23:43 The amount of the reward. 23:45 We've got to sit there and say, "well, I've got to quit taking 23:49 so much. " 23:50 I've got to first get away from it and I've got to... 23:53 the amount of the reward somehow within my mind... 23:56 we can convenience ourselves that this is not good. 23:59 We've got to tell in our minds. 24:00 We say "no, this is not good for me... this is not the 24:03 right thing to do. " 24:05 We can also replace a bad habit with a good habit. 24:08 But still, a bit of the habit is still left. 24:11 And so we go a little bit further. 24:13 And we get rid of the "B." 24:15 That's the "bother factor. " 24:17 That's the easy way out. 24:19 And as I mentioned, that's where peer pressure normally comes in. 24:22 What we have to do at least for a period of time is change 24:26 our group of friends. 24:28 Change our associations. 24:30 Change our surroundings because if this group of friends is 24:33 always going to go out and smoke cigarettes and drink beer, 24:36 and you're trying to quit, it stands to reason that we're 24:39 not going to be with this group of people right now. 24:41 Let's get with another group of people until we are so strong 24:44 in the other direction, that we will never go back 24:47 to that experience. 24:48 But, "it" is still there. 24:51 So, we do a little bit more. 24:53 The isolation factor. 24:55 Let's get rid of the isolation factor. 24:57 All right, we're done with the isolation factor. 24:59 How do we do that? 25:00 We've got to then allow other stimulus's to come into 25:04 our experience. 25:05 We've just been listening to one train... 25:07 Let's talk about a person who's into rock music. 25:09 Listening to the wrong type of music. 25:11 The best thing to do is start listening to the right 25:12 type of music. 25:14 Open up our experiences to the right type of music and we'll 25:18 find some experiences that will be good there. 25:20 But what happens? The "T" is still there. 25:23 There's still a tittle... still a jot left. 25:26 So, by God's grace, we can get rid of that time element. 25:31 That time between the stimulus and the response. 25:34 And now it no longer finds a hearkening voice within me. 25:39 But you may not be able to see it but on this board, I can 25:43 still see the word "habit" lightly written because 25:47 even with the eraser, basically once you have formed a habit 25:51 that habit is with you for the rest of your days. 25:54 And so my recommendation is what we need to do is make sure 25:58 that our habits are not forming in the wrong direction. 26:03 Form good habits now while you're young and you will find 26:07 many, many rewards, or you will be fighting that habit 26:09 for the rest of your days until Jesus comes in the clouds 26:12 of glory and everything is blotted out. 26:14 And I'm looking forward to that day because I still have things 26:17 siren calls in the back of my mind... I will not respond but 26:21 still the call is there. 26:22 I don't want to hear that call any more, Dr. Thrash. 26:25 Yes, we can be thankful to the Lord that He has made it so that 26:30 we can change. 26:31 We can make big changes in our lives. 26:33 In fact, we can make such changes that our whole 26:38 life style is different. 26:41 I remember the time when I changed from a 3-meal-a-day plan 26:46 to a 2-meal-a-day plan. 26:47 I had always prided myself in having 3 square meals a day. 26:51 That may be a Southern expression. 26:52 We certainly use it a lot and believe in it. 26:55 So when I realized that the physiologic way to have a meal 26:59 pattern was 2 meals a day, I wanted to change to that. 27:03 But, it was not so easy as just wanting to change. 27:06 It required quite an effort and it was a challenge. 27:08 And so I began to work on it and finally, little by little 27:12 the Lord helped me so that more and more time was put between 27:16 the time when I had eaten 3 meals and the time I was now 27:20 eating 2 and it was a great blessing to me to have that 27:23 2- meal-a-day pattern. 27:25 I'd like to read to you a prayer from Psalm 63, verses 1 and 2. 27:30 "Oh God, You are my God; 27:33 Earnestly I seek you; 27:35 My soul thirsts for You; My body longs for You 27:39 In a dry and weary land 27:42 Where there is no water. 27:44 Because Your love is better than life, 27:46 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods, 27:51 with singing on my lips. " 27:53 May God bless you richly. |
Revised 2014-12-17