Lessons from the Decorah Eagles: Wing Exercises

Exercise

by Marsha Iddings

 1Timothy 4:7 ...exercise yourself toward godliness. 

1Timothy 4:8 For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

(NKJV)

Here we see two pictures.  One is one of the eagles at a very young age and the other is possibly the same eagle grown up quite a bit.  The baby was not able to fly yet in either of these photos.  In fact, the very young eagle may have just discovered his wings!  We saw some really humorous wing displays at the very young stage.

In this picture the juvenile eagles are almost as big as the parents, and almost ready to fly but not quite.  They would flap their wings and bounce up and down on the nest in the wind like they are on a trampoline.  One day they  managed to "fly" a few feet from the nest and perch on the tree limb near their parents. This is called branching.

Before they could branch they had to exercise their wings with lots of flapping and hopping around so they would be strong enough when the time came to leave the nest.

The Bible tells us bodily exercise profits our bodies a little.  It is good to exercise and keep physically fit.  But we are told that it is far more important to exercise ourselves toward godliness.  The young eagles exercise themselves toward the goal of becoming independent and leaving the nest one day.  We are to exercise ourselves toward the goal of becoming a godly people, pleasing to God.  We exercise our spiritual wings by studying the Bible daily to learn what His will is for us and then doing it.