OPINIONS

Implementing healthy habits in college impacts well-being, productivity, relationships

BY VALERIA GOMEZ Staff Writer

“College student” and “healthy” can be in the same sentence; it is all about setting your priorities intentionally and developing the right habits.

The way you treat your body and mind matters. Once you make positive changes, differences will emerge. Here are some healthy habits you can implement in your busy routine. 1. Make time for movement.

Try different activities every week; this will help you figure out what you like and what you do not. While going to the gym is an option, it does not have to be the only option. If the gym is not your thing, go for a walk, ride a bike, rock climb, play sports or try a fitness class offered by Rec Life, like Zumba or Yoga. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, or do not park close to the entrance so you can get more steps in. Small changes matter. Movement keeps you healthy and improves your mood. 2. Focus on what you can add in, instead of cut out.

Eating healthy at college is not the easiest when the options are limited. Focus on what you can add to your meals rather than cut out. If you love mac and cheese, try to include some protein next time. Have fruit with your breakfast, or add a vegetable to your dinner. Cutting out foods can be overwhelming and unnecessary. Food is meant to be enjoyed, and your body is meant to be nourished. 3. Prioritize sleep

This may be an unpopular opinion, or at least one you don’t want to hear, but you need to sleep when you are in college. You can stay up until 3 a.m. once in a while, but doing

that every day will impact your memory, mood and focus. Getting at least seven hours of sleep every night can make a major difference between feeling rested or completely exhausted. You will perform better in not only academics and athletics, but in your relationships as well. 4. Skipping meals is nothing to be proud of.

Skipping meals does not give you an honorary badge. Your body needs food to function correctly and carry you through the day. Sitting in class while being hungry is distracting and painful. We all have a busy schedule, but not eating is not the solution to your busyness. Treat meal time as non-negotiable. Set the goal to eat at least three meals a day– your body will thank you. 5. Take a day off from schoolwork.

Use one day of the weekend to be fully present and do things that you enjoy. Schoolwork is important but you also need a break from it. Taking one day out of the weekend to do things that bring you joy will help you avoid burnout.

Giving yourself a break once every week will improve your emotional health as well. This can be a great opportunity to spend intentional time building relationships. Hang out with people who leave you feeling refreshed and encouraged as you prepare for the week to come, or try to spend meaningful time with yourself.

You can be a healthy and thriving college student when you learn to prioritize and develop good habits. Start slowly, and do it at your own pace. Small progress is still progress. Most of all, do not forget to celebrate your victories, and to be proud of how far you have come.

Leviticus cultivates spirit of thankfulness for forgiveness

BY SARA PATTERSON Editor-In-Chief

Halloween has come and gone and Christmas will be here before we know it. The Arkadelphia Walmart is already playing Christmas music and selling every kind of holiday decor. Standing between us and Christmas cheer is the often-overlooked middle child of holidays, Thanksgiving. I’ll be honest, it is not my favorite holiday of the three either. But, I do love the spirit of thankfulness that it inspires in me.

I want to explore thankfulness through a means that I am sure no one is expecting: the Old Testament book of Leviticus. Like Thanksgiving, this book seems to take on the role of the overlooked middle child in the Bible. I wonder what your personal experience with Leviticus has been like. Has it discouraged your well-meaning attempt to read the Bible all the way through in a year? Have you avoided it for most of your life because you’ve heard there isn’t much there, like I have?

Growing up in church, I’ve heard dozens of jokes about the countless rules in Leviticus and came away with the assumption that it was a legalistic book that only had value for people in the Old Testament time period. However, by reading through Leviticus with the guidance of a textbook and Christian Studies professor, Dr. Doug Nykolaishen, I’ve learned that there is much more to it. The book of Leviticus can inspire gratitude in the heart of the believer for what Jesus has sacrificed on our behalf.

Rather than a survey of outdated religious rituals, Leviticus addresses the central concern in a fallen world: how people marked by sin

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“This is the abundant life: living out of constant thankfulness for the One who has saved us because we have no means to save ourselves.” -Sara Patterson

can live in God’s presence. Leviticus begins by giving instructions for a few different kinds of animal sacrifices. All of these sacrifices are part of God’s elaborate object lesson to teach his people about the magnitude of his holiness and the weight of human sin. The sacrifices also foreshadow the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice.

To give scriptural context rather than just assuming you’ll take my word for it, I will share key sacrifices in Leviticus and their meaning for the worshipper’s relationship

with God. When the worshippers gave the purification or “sin” offering (Leviticus 4), they were identifying with the animal, acknowledging that the animal was taking the punishment that their sins deserved. The burnt offering (Leviticus 1) involved the burning up of an entire sacrifice. Because of how the smoke would rise upward, this offering represents consecration, the setting apart of something as holy. Lastly, the fellowship or “peace” offering involves eating a meal, which represents fellowship with God (Leviticus 3). The order that these sacrifices are given to God in Leviticus 9 is the same as the order I described them in, and it suggests that people could not enter into fellowship with God until their sins were atoned for and they were consecrated to God. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and only a blood sacrifice undoes

the effects of human sin. Sacrifices were the means of establishing a relationship with God in the Old Testament.

Leviticus does not teach that God’s people were saved by the Law in the Old Testament. God implemented the sacrificial laws so that people could have access to him, and he would later offer that access by sending Jesus to die as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. In Romans, Paul explains that everyone is sinful and lacks righteousness (Romans 3:23). He even specifies that no one in the Old Testament was saved by keeping the law (Romans 9:30-32). Rather, they were saved by faith. Hebrews 11, often referred to as the “Hall of Faith,” describes many people in the Old Testament who were saved by their faith in God.

Sacrifices were a necessary object lesson to illustrate that a blood sacrifice is the necessary and appropriate punishment for sin, but that object lesson is no longer needed because Jesus Christ paid the sacrifice. Now, we are still saved by our faith. When we believe in Jesus Christ and trust that his death on the cross has atoned for our sins, we are saved. Obedience to God is the natural result of our faith, but has never been the means by which we are saved.

As we enter the Thanksgiving season, I hope that you enjoy a meal with loved ones and are reminded of the incomparable fellowship you have with a holy and loving God. Let us give thanks for all that Jesus sacrificed so that we can have unlimited access to him even though we are sinful. This is the abundant life: living out of constant thankfulness for the One who has saved us because we have no means to save ourselves.