Power Thoughts
1. “It’s good to dream big because you can only go as far as you’re willing to dream.”
2. “For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. “A philosopher and holocaust survivor once said, “God is in control of our lives and our circumstances, even when we are not.”

The Good Friends Question of the Day: Has God ever asked you to do something you had to step out on faith to do?  If so how did it turn out? Please Like Comment & Share! – or call 1-800-944-8443!

Today’s Prayer Focus:
Pray for 5 large leadership gifts of $10,000 or more
Station Intercessor, Karen
Weekend Personality, Tiki

4 Surprising Benefits of Gardening: You may garden just for fun, but you’re also protecting your mental and physical health, too. Fight diabetes, osteoporosis, and other ailments with a pack of seeds and a garden hoe. Spring’s here and it’s getting warm enough in most of the country to start prepping your backyard garden with peas, lettuces, and spring flowers. If the idea of digging in the dirt has never much appealed to you, consider this: A growing number of studies are finding improved mental and physical health benefits of gardening that extend far beyond the obvious rewards of exercise and fresh air.

#1: Improve your satisfaction with life. It’s hard not to enjoy life when you’re surrounded by flowers, vegetables, and all the wildlife they attract—and now there’s science to back that up. A study asked 298 older adults how they would rate their “zest for life,” levels of optimism, and overall resolution and fortitude and found that gardeners had significantly higher scores in all those areas than non-gardeners.  Antidepressant use among adults over 65 has nearly tripled since the 1980s, gardening could be be as useful as Prozac for warding off the blues in our aging population.

#2: Lower your osteoporosis risk. It’s probably no surprise that gardening, and all the physical activity that goes along with it, leads to weight loss and better overall physical health. But that physical activity can improve your bones as well. Researchers found that women involved in yard work and other types of gardening exercises had lower rates of osteoporosis than joggers, swimmers, and women who did aerobics.

#3: Lower your diabetes risk. One of the primary components of managing diabetes is getting enough physical exercise. Active gardeners easily get more than the recommended 150 minutes per week of exercise. And if you grow food in your garden, you have another diabetes-management tool at your disposal: fresh produce.

#4: Better sleep. The mental health benefits of gardening are so strong that a field of medicine called horticultural therapy has been developed to help people who have psychiatric disorders deal with their conditions. Studies of people with dementia and anxiety have found that gardening helps calm their agitation, leading to better sleep patterns and improved quality of their rest. There’s no reason the rest of us won’t benefit, too. Researchers found that people who use gardening as a coping strategy for stressful life situations. The less we’re all stressed out, the better we’ll sleep.