Participants: Agatha Thrash, Don Miller
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000147
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00:01 There is such a thing as TRUE recreation.
00:05 But there is also something that we might call FALSE 00:08 recreation. 00:09 We'd like to discuss these aspects of recreation 00:13 as they pertain to health... 00:15 both mental and emotional health 00:17 and during the next half an hour, we will be discussing 00:20 some things about that, 00:21 and we hope you will join us. 00:44 Welcome to "Help Yourself to Health" 00:46 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute. 00:50 And now, here's your host, Dr. Thrash. 00:55 True recreation has the connotation of restoration... 00:59 ...whereas entertainment has just the connotation of fun, 01:03 maybe excitement, maybe injury. 01:09 Whatever it is in your mind, 01:12 let us make a study of some of the principles of true 01:17 recreation as we might find them in the Bible... 01:20 and I would like to present to you from Matthew 13:44... 01:26 something that I can recommend to you as always being a feature 01:31 of true recreation. 01:32 It is something that we can joy in with our Heavenly Father, 01:37 knowing that He is the Author of all TRUE recreation. 01:42 Let me just read... 01:43 "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, 01:46 that a man discovered hidden in a field 01:49 In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything 01:54 he owned to get enough money to buy the field, 01:57 and to get the treasure too. " 02:00 Now this describes the enjoyment that this man had. 02:04 The Bible says... this version of the Bible... 02:07 says that he actually had excitement about 02:10 the fact that he had found the treasure. 02:13 Now if we can get that same kind of excitement about 02:16 things having to do with spirituality, 02:18 this can bring to us true recreation. 02:23 But there are things having to do with the things that God 02:26 has created that make it so that we can have true 02:30 recreation from that too. 02:32 Have you ever considered the recreation that Adam and Eve 02:35 might have had in the Garden of Eden? 02:37 Picture a bit if you can... 02:39 Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden... 02:43 they did not have to work for a living. 02:46 Everything that they needed... 02:48 their clothing was provided for them, 02:50 they carried it around with them in the form 02:52 of a covering of light... 02:55 a robe of pure, white light. 02:59 The canopy of the earth made by the firmament 03:03 that enclosed the entire earth and 03:06 made the temperature uniform throughout 03:08 and made it just so that it had exactly the right humidity 03:12 exactly the right temperature 03:14 to be comfortable and helpful. 03:17 That was all provided for them in the atmosphere around them. 03:21 Then their food was provided for them by the trees and the 03:26 shrubs of the garden... 03:28 so that they had their food already for them just to pick 03:32 and peel and eat. 03:36 Grains that they took, I suppose they would probably 03:40 just rub them... rub the shuck off, 03:42 and I'm sure that it was much different than it is now. 03:47 But for them, that was recreation too... 03:49 gathering the wonderful things that God had provided for them 03:53 in the Bible. 03:55 Down through the centuries, things changed... 03:58 in fact, for Adam and Eve, it changed right away. 04:02 Once they introduced sin into the Garden, 04:05 then the whole aspect of recreation changed... 04:09 After that, they had to work for a living. 04:11 By the sweat of their brow, they earned their bread. 04:16 And now, they didn't have the protective covering 04:20 that they had had. 04:21 They now had to make their clothes as well. 04:26 So this made a certain amount of drudgery 04:28 in what they had to do. 04:29 But even so, I'm sure it was far different 04:32 than it was after the flood. 04:35 After the flood, then the earth was swept clean of much of the 04:41 beautiful verger that covered the earth prior to the flood. 04:47 And now, the ravished earth was no longer the beauty 04:53 that it had been before. 04:56 Now Adam and Eve had a whole different way of looking 05:03 at recreation and especially Noah and his sons 05:08 had a very different attitude than Adam and Eve did 05:13 in the very beginning of time. 05:16 Now we come on down through history and we get to 05:19 the time of the Greeks. 05:21 The Greeks had athletic-type sports which they enjoyed 05:26 very much... 05:27 And a large percentage of the people actually engaged 05:31 in the sports. 05:33 Then we come on down to the Romans and fewer 05:38 percentage of the people engaged in the sports. 05:41 Most of them became spectator sports. 05:45 Then we come on down through the centuries to our day... 05:48 and now, we have become largely couch potatoes. 05:52 We like some board games and some parlor games 05:55 and some computer games. 05:58 But we don't like the games that Adam and Eve had in the 06:01 beginning. 06:02 Or, that this man in Chapter 13:44 of Matthew had... 06:08 where for JOY, he went and sold all that he had... 06:12 so that he could enter in to that GREAT experience. 06:15 He felt that this recreational experience with the Lord was 06:19 worth everything to him. 06:21 And, we can have that very same experience too. 06:24 We can have true recreation. 06:26 But there are some things having to do with sports 06:29 which many people think of as true recreation 06:32 which are not the very best for us... 06:35 And I have here, Don Miller, who is my associate 06:38 at Uchee Pines. 06:39 He is in the education department there. 06:43 Don Miller is a health educator and a health counselor. 06:47 And, he will talk with you some now, about sports. 06:51 What do you have here? 06:52 Well... I'm going to tell you 06:53 about a study that was done 06:54 down in Texas a number of years ago 06:56 about what does sports 06:57 do to people. 06:58 You know I was very much involved in sports through 07:03 high school and college and in the military, 07:06 and I just remember what it did to me to go up against 07:10 the other team... you just... you had this thing in you. 07:12 And... 07:14 there are certain 07:15 theories about 07:16 what sports do for a person.. 07:17 But what I want to do is show you a study on the screen 07:21 that was done in Texas with high school varsity sports 07:25 players, 1600 of them... that's a big study. 07:29 And this is what 07:30 they found after seeing 07:31 how these boys reacted. 07:33 They found that they had increased aggression... 07:36 I don't think we need anymore increased aggression in our 07:40 society. 07:41 Increased irritability... that's inbred into the sports person. 07:46 Reduced honesty... it's amazing, you watch these pro-sportsmen 07:50 out there and you can SEE that they weren't across the line... 07:53 you can SEE that they didn't touch somebody or they did 07:56 touch somebody... but they just complain loudly 08:01 because they've been called for their violation, reduced honesty 08:06 Decreased self-control. 08:08 Decreased independence... they were dependent upon 08:12 other people. 08:13 And then there was that last one, #6... 08:16 A slight increase in self-esteem... 08:20 Now I'm always amazed that we send our children to esteemed 08:25 classes. 08:27 We sit there and say... Well, their problem is 08:29 their esteem is too low. 08:31 But the Bible says we are to esteem others 08:33 better than ourselves. 08:35 And I think many times, we misdiagnose or we mislabel 08:40 what we consider might be esteem in these people involved 08:43 in sports and it's more of an arrogance. 08:46 You can see it in pro-sports... 08:48 the football player goes across the finish line or the 08:52 goal line with his football 08:53 and he stands there and he wiggles his legs and he does all 08:56 kinds of jiggles and jaggles around there. 08:58 ...Looks like a foolish person doing these things 09:01 All pride! 09:02 The basketball players nowadays, 09:04 they go out there and they snuff the ball and they hang on 09:07 the loop like a chimpanzee. 09:09 It's all show... 09:10 It's all a part of their arrogance and their thing. 09:13 As a matter of fact, from my thoughts 09:15 going to Washington Sports Program... 09:17 you go to the arena, or the field, or whatever 09:19 ...you're watching a bunch of 09:20 millionaires run around 09:21 and play a game. 09:23 There are better ways to spend our monies nowadays... 09:27 So I think we need to take our children away. 09:29 Now I will be talking about a few things later on, soccer moms 09:32 about sports that really aren't the best thing for our children. 09:35 There are better things that they can be doing 09:37 But that's what the Texas study showed, Dr. Thrash, 09:40 and it really doesn't do any favors for young people. 09:42 Yes, as I looked at that list that you have there, 09:45 I thought those aren't things that we used to think of as 09:49 sportsmanship where we thought of honesty, honor, 09:54 fair-dealing, trying to help the under person 09:58 to do better. 09:59 And, when I was in school, I remember those were the things 10:02 that were considered to be sportsmanship. 10:06 Concerning children in sports, 10:08 there are now teams of all sorts for children 10:12 and we would think that children would be much more 10:16 altruistic and idealistic... 10:19 but let me just read some of the things that we find that 10:22 some of these children's teams foster in the children... 10:27 First, a study which was published in the 10:31 "Journal of Sports Psychology," in 1981, 10:35 showed that quarreling occurred on a regular basis. 10:40 The children would quarrel with each other. 10:43 Furthermore, they would quarrel with the coach... 10:46 or the umpire. 10:48 And it wasn't at all uncommon for them to quarrel with 10:52 the parents of some other player. 10:54 Fistfights would break out. 10:57 Fistfights that were a fight to the death. 11:01 They tried, really, to do each other in. 11:03 It wasn't just to hurt them a little but to really injure them 11:08 Crying was another common complaint on several occasions. 11:13 It was generally in the context of some perceived injustice 11:17 done to themselves, or some failure that they had done. 11:21 They might leave the playing field or the court crying 11:25 because they perceived that they had failed 11:28 and they had really hoped or had their ideals 11:33 pinned on doing well and they did not do so well. 11:37 Rivalry with other children was greatly increased 11:40 and altruism was greatly decreased. 11:45 Now, these are all antisocial expressions. 11:49 These are expressions which, if they are fostered 11:52 and cherished by the child, will lead to a handicap 11:57 in later life. 11:58 So, we want to watch over our children... 12:00 sports are fine, 12:02 but the sports that are not competitive sports 12:05 and that foster these kinds of antisocial expressions 12:09 that can handicap the life forever. 12:12 Now, not only can the general life be handicapped 12:18 and the social expressions be handicapped, 12:21 but also, the body can be handicapped. 12:23 And Don Miller is going to talk with you about some of the 12:27 problems that people get in who are in competitive sports. 12:31 Okay... Every sport has its equipment, 12:34 and, of course, we've always got the balls. 12:36 Every sport has a ball involved just about in its 12:39 particular sport. 12:40 But there are pieces of sporting equipment that we don't really 12:43 think about too often, we really 12:44 don't want to think about it. 12:45 One piece of sporting equipment that becomes very handy 12:48 is the Ace bandage. 12:50 I have used these things a lot of times when I have been 12:54 engaged in sports. 12:55 Also, ankle braces and ankle supports 12:59 because we hurt ourselves so much. 13:00 As a matter of fact, every year, there are 10 million sports 13:04 injuries in this country alone. 13:06 We have knee supports and leg braces, 13:10 and quite often, we've got the crutches. 13:13 I had to use one of these after breaking a leg 13:16 in a sporting event. 13:18 These are standard equipment in sports nowadays 13:22 We have to be very careful with our bodies. 13:24 I know of a couple of situations, 13:26 one, a friend of mine, 13:28 an older man was involved in just a pickup game of basketball 13:32 ...just something as simple as playing a game of basketball. 13:35 Bouncing around.. but, you know, it got a little bit rough 13:38 ...think you're going to play a little street rules, 13:40 "jungle rules" as we used to call it... 13:42 and through all this thing, he caught a finger in his eye. 13:46 and now he is permanently blind in that eye 13:50 ...just from a simple game of basketball. 13:52 Once when I was stationed in Key West, Florida, 13:55 I was an officer there at the Marine barracks and 13:58 we were playing a softball game 14:00 and our coach, who was also a player, 14:02 he was running to 3rd base, and the ball was coming in 14:05 and he just dove head first 14:07 and his hands went out first 14:10 and it just took his thumb straight back and it was just 14:13 dangling up against his arm 14:15 and he stayed in the game because he LOVED the game. 14:17 But he really did a miserable job on his hand. 14:20 I remember years ago, I was stationed in Atlanta, Georgia, 14:24 and I was going to play racquetball one noontime 14:27 with our director, a colonel... 14:29 and we'd get out there and he was very good 14:31 and I wasn't good at all... 14:33 and he'd be there and hitting that ball 14:34 and every once in a while, I'd turn around and look at him 14:36 And he'd say, "Don't turn around" 14:38 and he'd be playing some more and I'd look back 14:40 and he'd say, "Don't turn around. " 14:42 Well, he'd realized I was turning around too much 14:44 So, every once in a while, he'd take that ball, 14:46 and he was very good, 14:47 and he would plant that thing right in the middle of my back. 14:50 And it hurt terribly. 14:52 But I realized what he was doing, 14:54 if I ever turned around while he hit that ball, 14:56 and I had caught that ball in my eye, 14:59 I would have lost my eye. 15:01 And they lose their eyes all the time in sports nowadays. 15:05 As a matter of fact, you'll see many times, 15:07 especially in racquetball and handball, 15:09 the now almost standard equipment 15:11 is special eye protection 15:13 so if you're going to be involved in these sports, 15:15 protect your bodies. 15:17 Now, we've already talked about the fact that 15:18 it's going to be hard to protect your character 15:21 because your character will suffer trauma... 15:23 but protect your body too. 15:26 We see the football players... 15:28 they've got their shoulder pads and 15:31 everything seems to be padded... 15:32 but they're broken down men many times... 15:35 their playing span is very short from their injuries. 15:39 And that goes right back to the earliest times 15:42 into their sporting experiences. 15:44 Right now, if I were to go outside and pickup a rock, 15:48 and throw it at a tree or somewhere, 15:51 pretty hard, I would be hurting for about a week because 15:54 I've got a permanent rotator cuff injury 15:56 because the first day of softball season, 15:59 every year in the military, 16:00 I'd get out there and I'd throw that ball as hard as I 16:03 could because it's the first day and you feel great 16:06 and I permanently injured my rotator cuff in my right arm. 16:10 It's a thing that I'm stuck with. 16:12 I have basically done a job on my knees because for years, 16:15 I was a competitive runner. 16:16 And it's not a bad thing to run. 16:18 Running is a good sport. 16:19 But when you really get into running, 16:21 this is what you do... 16:22 You're running in a race, 16:23 and I'm talking about a distance run... 16:26 and you're always trying to beat that person up ahead of you 16:29 And you beat that person, and then there's another person 16:32 And you're putting your body through stresses it's really not 16:35 made to take. 16:36 And I basically slowly wore down my left knee 16:39 until the point I really don't want to run anymore because 16:42 I don't want to be stuck with osteoarthritis as I get older. 16:45 And so, we need to learn to take care of ourselves... 16:48 the bruises, the strains, the sprains... 16:51 and part and parcel with sports injuries. 16:54 But there are greater injuries that people succumb to... 16:58 We see them, broken necks and broken bones, 17:01 broken backs... 17:03 I wonder is it really worth all the pain and the debility 17:08 that we experience through these sports, 17:11 and so, I'd rather get involved in the type of a sport 17:14 like walking in the woods and working in my garden and doing 17:18 things with myself and with my Lord 17:21 They're not competitive and they're pretty safe for my body. 17:24 I feel a whole lot better with sports like that, Dr. Thrash. 17:27 Yes, those are very acceptable sports. 17:29 Another type of recreation that many people engage in 17:33 that we would find unacceptable 17:36 is that of drinking and drugs. 17:39 Recreational drugs and recreational alcohol can be very 17:44 ruinous, not only to the health but to the entire life. 17:47 And many people sacrifice their lives and all their potential 17:51 on these alters... 17:52 ...the alter of alcohol and the alter of drugs. 17:55 We recommend to you that you totally avoid them, 17:58 that they be left entirely to the 18:04 animals that we do experiments on 18:06 and not use them at all in your recreational habits. 18:11 I have a number of studies done on blood alcohol levels 18:15 in individuals and the disabilities that they have 18:19 at various levels. 18:20 I have also been a witness against individuals who have 18:28 had high blood alcohol levels and have committed some crime. 18:32 And so I 18:33 recommend to you 18:35 that you not consider 18:37 anything that has the great potential that alcohol does 18:41 and drugs, of ruining your life forever 18:44 I recommend that you simply leave that alone. 18:46 It isn't worth the altered, perverted sense of fun 18:53 that some people have when they use these substances 18:57 It is not worth that to risk all of your future. 19:02 Now another part of recreation is something that has both a 19:06 blessing and a curse 19:07 and that is music. 19:10 I have just read a book by Dr. Eurydice Osterman 19:13 who is the head of the department of music at 19:18 Oakwood College. 19:20 Dr. Osterman has written a book called... 19:22 "What God Says About Music. " 19:24 And I have enjoyed reading that 19:26 And as I read it, I thought about the large place that music 19:33 has in the earth made new. 19:36 I'm sure that God will teach us 19:39 all sorts of things like... how to play a harp, 19:42 apparently we will have that as innate knowledge... 19:45 we will not have to be taught. 19:46 We will be simply issued the harp and immediately 19:49 we will be able to play... 19:51 What a joy that will be... a very challenging instrument. 19:55 But we will also sing. 19:57 The human voice is the most beautiful musical instrument 20:02 on earth. 20:03 And, singing can be a great blessing to us. 20:06 But there is that about music that can also be a curse. 20:10 And Dr. Osterman talks about that in her book on music... 20:14 ...about how the physical body is affected by the kind of music 20:19 that we listen to. 20:20 Much of this kind of music we will find in the 20:23 mass media today... in radio and in television 20:26 And we recommend to you that you learn that kind of 20:30 music that can be damaging to your psychological makeup 20:33 and to your physical body and that you avoid that kind 20:37 of music. 20:38 With television, there are also some other dangers that 20:42 we should mention. 20:43 One is that the flicker of television requires a certain 20:51 time span... 20:53 because of the fact that the eye has to unite those flickers 20:58 into one steady image... 21:01 And making that flicker synthesis requires a certain 21:06 amount of time. 21:07 Then when you receive the image into the eye, 21:11 after that flicker synthesis is done, 21:14 then it must be passed to the back of the head 21:18 where we have the visual cortex... way back here in the 21:21 back of the head. 21:22 That doesn't take long, but it does take a split second. 21:26 And then, not only must we receive it there in the visual 21:30 cortex, but then we must transfer it to another area 21:34 which is an interpretation area... 21:36 another split second. 21:38 Then we have to transfer it to yet another area 21:41 where we synthesize all of these aspects 21:44 of what has gone on in the brain, 21:47 so that we can send the composite picture to the 21:51 judgment center of the brain. 21:54 In the judgment center, we criticize what we have seen. 21:57 Now television does not give us enough time 22:01 to criticize what we have seen. 22:03 All of these steps take a little bit of time 22:05 once we get to the judgment center, 22:07 then it isn't possible for us to take the time 22:11 with commercial TV to evaluate what we see in commercial TV. 22:16 Now you will observe that 3ABN broadcasts its programs 22:21 in an altogether different way... 22:22 The flicker is the same, 22:24 all the things that happen in the brain are the same, 22:27 EXCEPT for what happens in the judgment center... 22:30 You're given plenty of time to make a judgment 22:34 about what I have said or others have said 22:37 so that you can see if that is moral or immoral 22:41 If it agrees with your religion, or it does not agree. 22:44 If it's offensive to your sensibilities, 22:47 or it's not offensive. 22:49 All of that takes time. 22:51 Commercial TV does not give you that time. 22:54 I consider that to be a very difficult problem 22:57 with commercial TV, 22:59 and one of the reasons why parents should be extremely 23:03 careful with television. 23:05 So far as I'm concerned, a child does not need to see television. 23:09 They can watch 3ABN... 23:11 it's not commercial TV and they will be much edified 23:15 by watching 3ABN. 23:17 Now there are some aspects of television that Don Miller will 23:22 talk with you about and 23:23 perhaps at this time, he will say a few words about that. 23:27 I'd like to say a few words about that because 23:29 things have changed since I was a child. 23:31 I was born in 1947. 23:33 1950s was the year the television came out 23:37 and things were on television back then which 23:40 I consider, even today, to be rather innocent. 23:43 I mean... I grew up with Beaver Clever. 23:45 I grew with Ozzie and Harriet 23:47 I grew up with these very simple family situations. 23:50 But things have changed... 23:52 there's been a whole paradigm shift as it were 23:55 to today's television programming. 23:57 And I don't watch television anymore. 23:59 I do not have a TV. I have not had TV for years. 24:02 But I hear about what's going on these TVs 24:05 I read in newspapers. 24:06 I read about that guy named "Beavis" and his friend. 24:08 I read about Mary with children. 24:10 and all these things... the very programming 24:13 is meant to change a person's whole mindset. 24:17 Even going back to the detectives and the dramas 24:23 back in my youth, 24:24 you had the things like "Highway Patrol" and 24:30 programs like that. 24:31 You never saw blood and guts flying... 24:33 You never saw the violence that you seen nowadays 24:36 in programs on the television 24:38 So, I've even forgotten the names of the programs back then 24:41 That's good! Things are getting better in my mind. 24:43 But, we see that as programming changes... 24:47 well, they've done some studies. 24:49 They've gone to places where they've never had television 24:52 and finally, they've gotten TV in. 24:55 And, as soon as TV is introduced in a society, 25:00 they find a number of things... 25:02 One, homicides go up. 25:03 Delinquency goes up. 25:06 Attitudes of children in schools 25:08 down as low as the first and second grades 25:10 go down. 25:11 In South Africa, for years, the homicide rate had been 25:15 falling, falling, falling... 25:17 and then TV was introduced 25:19 and as soon as TV was introduced, 25:21 for the next 15 years, it went up precipitously. 25:24 Now, it's interesting to look at the time in which 25:28 TV was introduced in South Africa 25:30 and how much it rose and take the same period of time 25:33 for TV introduced into the United States 25:36 and the rise in crime was much lower in the United States. 25:41 Why was it lower 25:42 in the U.S., 25:43 than it was in South Africa? 25:44 Are they different? 25:46 Were they created by a different God? 25:47 No... because when TV was created or introduced 25:51 into the United States, back in the 50s, 25:53 the programming was quite innocent and family-oriented. 25:57 BUT, when TV was introduced in 1975, 26:00 in South Africa, programming at that time 26:03 had become quite violent. 26:05 Quite perverted... if I can use that word. 26:09 And it changed the people, because what you view, 26:14 what you behold is what you become. 26:17 And so, if you want to become a Beavis, 26:20 watch Beavis. 26:22 If you want to become like Christ, observe Him. 26:25 Observe Him in the Word, observe Him in nature. 26:29 Because one of these days, we're going to be like Him... 26:32 if we allow Him to make us that way... Dr. Thrash. 26:35 I feel that even what we might call "innocent TV" 26:40 as a Christian parent, we need to be very mindful of the fact 26:44 that most "innocent TV" and "innocent drama" teaches our 26:49 children that they can get along very well without God. 26:53 And I'm not certain that that's the message that we want to 26:56 transmit to them. 26:58 Now one big time when we need to have Christian recreation 27:03 is on Sabbath. 27:05 and singing, walks in nature, water walks or 27:11 water and nature studies... 27:12 all of these can be a part of what we do on Sabbath 27:16 that can teach our children about the wonders 27:19 of God's creation. 27:20 And as we see the wonders of God's creation, 27:23 we come to have a heart filled with gratitude for Him. 27:27 We know that God created this world, 27:31 then He made Adam and Eve 27:33 and He gave this world to them as a wedding gift. 27:38 It's a gift that is so varied 27:42 so big... 27:44 that we can spend an entire lifetime 27:47 trying to study the various aspects of it 27:50 and we still never exhaust 27:52 the marvelous source. |
Revised 2014-12-17