This marvelous, amazing, and beautiful machine called our body.
Every Sunday, there is a class at church just for young women aged 12 to 18. I teach this class occasionally, it is one of my favorite things to do. Truly. For the reasons of I love the young women, I love to teach, I love studying gospel subjects, I love being with and learning from the young women.
Guidance is given about what gospel subject to teach and suggestions of how. Each month even there is a theme. For February the theme was The Plan of Salvation, sometimes know as The Plan of Happiness - in other words, why we are on this earth, what will happen to us next, and how to make the best of our time here on this earth.
The monthly theme is broken down into subtopics and one of those was about "our body is a temple of God".
"Know ye not that ye are a temple of God" 1 Corinthians 3:16
This, this was the gospel subject I taught on Sunday. If you can imagine, our bodies and how they work, heal, and grow has been something dwelling in my mind and heart for several weeks and months now. I was very excited to teach this lesson. I really wanted to focus on how wonderful our bodies are, how important the body is for our eternal growth, and how amazing and beautiful our bodies are.
I studied, pondered, prayed, read, studied, pondered, and prayed some more. Finally it came time to organize my thoughts (hopefully, I believe they were directed from my Heavenly Father under the guidance of His Holy Spirit) in preparation for the lesson. Just so you know what really makes the lesson work is sharing, trusting, and receiving thoughts from the young women. Without their words and sweet spirit it means nothing, and they were amazing and inspiring.
I am sharing here some of the quotes/thoughts that I had the young women ponder and respond to during the class with you. They are quotes from prophets and apostles of these latter-days along with a scripture or two from the Holy Bible. Plus a video, newspaper article, and youtube song (the song is corny but a fun reminder of this amazing gift of our body from God)
Yes, there are several links to follow if you want. I couldn't pick just one.
First the song, it is from a play about coming to earth written years and years ago. The song is called "everybody ought to have a body". Enjoy the silly, funness of it.
The Prophet Joseph
Smith taught with great clarity about the importance of our
physical bodies:
“We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it
pure before God in the celestial kingdom. The great principle of
happiness consists in having a body."Elder David A. Bednar stated:
"Obtaining a tabernacle of flesh is an essential step in the process of becoming like our Heavenly Father. Our physical bodies make possible a breadth, depth, and intensity of experience that simply could not be obtained in our premortal estate. As President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has taught, “Our physical body is the instrument of our spirit” (Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled [1991], 211). Thus, our relationships with other people, our capacity to recognize and respond to truth, and our ability to obey the principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ are amplified through our physical bodies. In this classroom of mortality we experience tenderness, kindness, happiness, sorrow, disappointment, pain, and even the challenges of physical limitations in ways that prepare us for eternity. Simply stated, there are lessons we must learn and experiences we must have, as the scriptures describe, “according to the flesh” "
Our bodies allow us to do amazing things and we can let the Lord direct our path about some of those amazing things we should do with our life and our body. Nicole Pikus-Pace won the silver medal for the skeleton in the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Please note her statement of her participation in this sport was "because she felt it was the path God wanted her to walk". Hopefully you have time to read the whole article because this is a woman who has chosen a path to do something fantastic with this God given gift of a body. But if you don't please accept this additional statement from Nicole:
"My faith in what we’re doing and our purpose isn’t surrounded by a color of a medal. ... That isn’t what it’s about. The journey that we’ve had, the people we’ve been able to share this experience with, and the smiles and lives we’ve been able to touch made it all worth it.”
Nicole Pikus-Pace reflects on God's path for her
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Genesis 1:27
God loved us so much He wanted us to be as happy as He is and He knew the only way to do that is to give us a body, so He did. Our bodies are created like His body, but ours are imperfect and His is perfect but we are learning to care for our bodies so they can be perfect like His.
This video explaining about the importance of physical health shows that a little bit.
Our bodies are so marvelous and a gift from God to get us back to be with Him and like Him. But again they aren't perfect and we get sick, we get hurt, we are born with infirmities, but that doesn't make our bodies any less marvelous.
Elder Russell M. Nelson shared a beautiful statement about this:
"My professional years as a medical doctor gave me a profound respect for the human body. Created by God as a gift to you, it is absolutely amazing! Think of your eyes that see, ears that hear, and fingers that feel all the wondrous things around you. Your brain lets you learn, think, and reason. Your heart pumps tirelessly day and night, almost without your awareness. Your body protects itself. Pain comes as a warning that something is wrong and needs attention. Infectious illnesses strike from time to time, and when they do, antibodies are formed that increase your resistance to subsequent infection.
Your body repairs itself. Cuts and bruises heal. Broken bones can become strong once again. I have cited but a tiny sample of the many amazing God-given qualities of your body.
Even so, it seems that in every family, if not in every person, some physical conditions exist that require special care. A pattern for coping with such a challenge has been given by the Lord. He said, “I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; … for if they humble themselves … and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”
Stellar spirits are often housed in imperfect bodies."
Our bodies are amazing and imperfect but they can do so much and they are beautiful, each and every one of them.
I am so thankful for the amazing path I am on as my body continues to heal and grow stronger each day. I am caring for it and strengthening it too. I thank you for your continued encouragement, prayers, and help.
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