ANNA TELLS OF AMISH MEDICINE

I wanted to put on a post and explain why we use herbs.  Also, maybe the ways of our medicine.  To start with being both Amish and born again, we go by the ways of the Bible.  We believe that the Lord is love.  He created us, sent his son to this earth, he teaches us through the Bible and Jesus died on the cross for us.  So the Lord is love.  We also believe that the Lord heals.  When I give some medicine or they go to the doctor or hospital and are healed that the Lord healed them.  Now the Lord may have given me the wisdom to use a certain medicine or given the doctor the wisdom or the hospital doctors and nurses the wisdom, but the healing is the Lord's.  Even when someone passes on (dies) we feel that is the Lord's healing.  When someone passes, we feel that the Lord has taken them home where they are healed.

Another point, is that we believe our healthy bodies are a gift from God.  We should try to keep our bodies healthy and in as good condition as we can.  There are many things we consider beside medicine.  If a special child is born whether with physical or mental problems, we should also keep their bodies as healthy as we can.  Also, if an adult or young person should have an accident where they have physical or mental injury, they should still be kept in condition as well as they can be. Special adults or children should be treated as normal as they can be.  I could go into another post on that.

Of course, we use herbs for medicine, which I will tell you about.  But, we have other things we also consider for better health.  I want to tell you a little about them.

Light is very important to us.  Genesis 1:3 "And God said: Let there be light and there was light."  We must have light for our crops, animals must have light and we must have light.  We eat the crops and animals that need light.  Also, we ourselves need light.  Now I don't mean going out in the sun and getting sun burned or skin cancer.  But when we plow or harvest our crops - we get light outside.  When we work in my garden - we get light.  When we shovel snow, we get light.  Our bodies need light.  Many people have depression times during the winter when they don't get outside as they should.  We believe this depression is do to lack of outside light.

Muscles, bones and circulation are also important to us.  If there is  a problem with one of these, the whole body suffers.  We must maintain these and exercise.  We do not have any exercise equipment in our home.  Nor do we jog or run, unless it is an emergency.  Cleaning house is exercise.  Milking cows is exercise.  Plowing and harvesting our crops is exercise.  Taking walks together is exercise.  Eating the correct foods are important in maintaining these.

Breathing we must maintain.  James 4:14 "It is even a vapour, that appeareth for alittle time, and then vanisheth  away."  We can maintain for a few days without food, and we can maintain for a few days without water.  But we can not maintain without breathing.  With the pollutions in the air, we must maintain our breathing.  That is why we clean our homes from attic, house, to basement.  We make sure there is ventilation.  Also we obtain from smoking.

Diet is important to us. Despite what all the Amish cookbooks say, we do not fry chicken all the time.  I saw an article that says the Amish do not eat correctly.  I would like to meet the person that wrote that to speak with them.  We eat vegetables and fruit that we grow ourself - without chemicals on our food or in it.  We raise many of our own animals to eat.  We can our foods so we can have them year around.  We must watch our sweets so we don't over do it.  As we are not as active in the winter as we are the other months, we must watch how much we eat and what we eat. There are also times when we fast and when the body needs cleansing.

Water is in the Bible several times.  Two thirds of the weight of an adult is water.  The proper consumption of water is important.  Water is for drinking, bathing, cleansing, elimination from the body and more.  Living next to water can be a calming effect.  We don't live near water, but we do enjoy it when we go there.

Love we believe God is love and God does the healing.

Alms - Matthew 6:1 " Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven" We have a heavy bag at the door when we go to Sunday service.  We can put our money in the bag.  No one keeps account of who puts what in.  It is up to us to put in what we feel is right.  It is nice to know that we are donating to help others as the Lord wants us to.

Laughter is important to health.  In laughing you exercise your lungs, heart and glands.  Humor also gives you more pleasure, relieves tension and fear.

Dressing plain and with modest.  1 Peter 3:3-4 "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price."  We feel that our plainness allows beauty to develop inside of us that would not happen if we wore jewelry, makeup, fancy clothes, etc.

Simple Ways - Ps 19:7 "The law of the Lord is perfect,  converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple."  Here we believe in avoiding the outside ways of the world.  We believe we must praise God, study the true meaning of our lives, develop our talents, help others in need, and just rejoice in our lives and being.

Touching is important.  We believe touching people also has a healing.  We believe massage can heal relieve tension, headaches and more.  That would be another whole post.

Work also helps in healing and teaching.  We must produce the fruits of labor and teach our young ones to do the same.

Praise and thanksgiving to the Lord is important in healing.  We should pray, praise and thank the Lord daily.  Also, we should stop gossip, and complaining and appreciate what the Lord has given us.

So in our healing we consider more than just herbs, flowers, and more.  We try to consider the source of the problem both physical and mental.  When someone comes, I talk with them and pray with them to see if we can find the source.  Of course sometimes taking care comes first, talking later in such as an accident or alike.

I thank Marilyn for per patience in this post.  We have been putting this together for almost a month.  At times I thought we would finish this, we had to put other posts on.  I will do another post on the herbs and medicines.

Trust God's Wisdom,
Anna