CT 294
(Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students 294)
Health and Efficiency VC
Health is an inestimable blessing and one more closely related to conscience and religion than many realize. It has a great deal to do with one’s capability for service and should be as sacredly guarded as the character, for the more perfect the health the more perfect will be our efforts for the advancement of God’s cause and for the blessing of humanity. (CT 294.1) MC VC
There is an important work to be done in our schools in teaching the youth the principles of health reform. The teachers should exert a reformatory influence in the matter of eating, drinking, and dressing, and should encourage their students to practice self-denial and self-control. The youth should be taught that all their powers are from God; that He has a claim upon every faculty; and that by abusing their health in any way they slight one of God’s choicest blessings. The Lord gives them health to use in His service, and the greater their physical strength, the stronger their powers of endurance, the more they can do for the Master. Instead of abusing or overtaxing their physical powers, they should jealously guard them for His use. (CT 294.2) MC VC
Youth is the time to lay up knowledge in those lines that can be put into daily practice throughout the life. Youth is the time to establish good habits, to correct wrong ones, to gain and hold the power of self-control, to accustom oneself to ordering all the acts of life with reference to the will of God and the welfare of one’s fellow creatures. Youth is the sowing time that determines the harvest of this life and the life beyond the grave. The habits formed in childhood and youth, the tastes acquired, the self-control gained, are almost certain to determine the future of the man or woman. (CT 294.3) MC VC