Topic: Temperate in Labor [Ellen G. White Devotional 18 May 2020]
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Temperate in All Things
Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. Ecclesiastes 5:18.
That time is spent to the very best account which is directed to the establishment and preservation of sound physical and mental health…. It is an easy matter to lose the health, but it is difficult to regain it…. We cannot afford to dwarf or cripple a single function of the mind or body by overwork or abuse of any part of the living machinery.
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…. 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 less degree.82Counsels on Health, 99.
Much of the fatigue and labor under which they are wearing and growing old are not burdens that God has bound upon them, but which they have brought upon themselves by doing the very things the Word of God has told them not to do.
It is not our duty to place ourselves where we shall be overworked. Some may at times be placed where this is necessary, but it should be the exception, not the rule…. If we honor the Lord by acting our part, He will on His part preserve our health…. By practicing temperance in eating, in drinking, in dressing, in labor, and in all things, we can do for ourselves what no physician can for us.
Do not try to crowd into one day the work of two
