Sections:
Emulating God Through Health
Time for Health
Eliminating Health Excuses
Developing a Taste for Zion Culture
Things Healthy People Do
Why They Do It
Emulating God Through Health
Brigham Young said of the kingdom of heaven, how each person there is as breathtakingly beautiful as the next. That one would gasp and per adventure faith upon each sight if persons there. He taught they would be as beautiful as the angels that surround the throne of God if they merit the great attainment of exaltation in the kingdom of God.
President Nelson said those who have studied the body have seen God moving in his majesty and glory.
While it’s wasteful to spend all one’s time honing the body in the gym, and rude to show off the body too much in public, we can learn from healthy people. Let us consider health. This gives glory to God. This inspires faith in God.
Show them you are chaste not because you are obese, but because you deliberately chose to be. Be attractive to show all the more that the Lord Jehovah is your God.
The health gods make good choices about food every time, or darn near close to it. They couldn’t be so healthy if they didn’t. Surely God makes good health choices. They emulate God in this, and thus more closely emulate and show his form and grandeur. The beauty of a fully healthy person is truly astonishing, it is a reflection of the image of God.
Obesity is usually an indicator of lack of self-control, and over indulgence in one or more areas of life. It also represents a lack of values, cynicism, and isolationism. Sometimes it’s from genetic disease, usually from poor management. I’m not judging, just teaching.
We can emulate God by seeking health, though not too ambiguously lest we forget our other duties. The character of Christ us several fold, and this is one of those folds.
The inspired person will seek to be beautiful and set aside trends which are not beautiful when it comes to dress and appearance.
There is something significant about the fact that our bodies correlate with our spirits, and that we must tame not only our spirits, but our bodies. Indeed, the taming of the body, the appetites, the lusts etc. to be channeled into holy submission with excellent health and high moral standards, these are keys of spirituality. Temporality cannot be separated from spirituality. If a righteous person does well in all with exception of the taming of his own appetites, this person indeed pleases God, but has yet sin to extinguish in his journey to the kingdom of God.
Some have said that the curse of Adam is in large the biological inheritance of the human race, the physical body appetites and instincts which are not in harmony with the perfect character of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can work toward being in control of ourselves, bringing all things in subjection through righteous restraint and priorities.
Understanding that it is the will of God that we take care of our health to a reasonable extent (reasonable perhaps meaning staying within the ‘normal’ ranges which are not pre-indications for the development of terminal illnesses) empowers us to allow ourselves the time of day and other needed resources for seeing to it that we have a clean bill of health. I suggest D&C 89 as the standard for obtaining that clean bill of health, it can help you loose weight, gain weigt, gain control, etc. as your body requires. There is within good nutrition a standard of health which the body draws to, meaning that if you eat right, your body will gravitate toward an ideal healthy body weight.
Not unfrequently has Zion been called beautiful! The doctrine of beauty is shunned by many zealous religionists, but let them search their souls, and they will find that it is a true principle consistent with the heavens and citizens there. We are not to wait for the life to come to give attention to health, or to whimsically wish for a forthcoming day when despite all our neglect, we will be given a clean bill of health. Brigham Young said that we are not going to wait for Zion to descend from heaven, we are going to build it right here, and right now!
If you see that your body is not in compliance with the generous ranges suggested by the scientists of pathophysiology pertaining to the ranges of health which are predictors that you will not develop one of the many diseases of excess such as DM2 hypertension strokes etc., let that be your measuring rod to see that you aren’t correctly balancing your priorities, and need to scale back on something else to give more attention to your health. Remember always that the Lord has said it is better to obey than sacrifice, meaning that your good ideas aren’t as good as his commandments, and that you’ll make the best use of your time by first keeping the commandments, then playing around with creative service ideas after that. Let God be praised for inspiring us with the sciences we have today which can guide us in a confident knowledge of when we are outside of a healthy range, so that we can get back on track rather than living in confusion of why certain pesky symptoms plague us. Granted some people do all the right things when it comes to health and still have issues, but I think that is the exception, not the rule. Further, when people set aside council from God on health (D&C 89) and replace it for fad health practices, they should not be surprised to see that the creation of the Creator is having a higher rate of malfunction than they had hoped.
The overweight person, the obese person, and the morbidly obese person all have something in common: they are, some faster than others, on the track toward premature death, and lethargy through life. They may appear energetic and work long hours, but compared to what they could do in good health, it is miniscule. Many heavy people have great willpower in their profession or home making, perhaps compensating for their other weaknesses by working long hours of dedicated service to some cause of interest. What they must learn is that when they take care of their bodies, though some investment of mental and physical effort and foresight. will be involved, those investments will provide exponential dividends in their quality of life, and the quality of service they give to their fellow man, and thus their God.
A nutrition-based health plan instead of a constant exercise-based plan will accommodate any busy person in a journey toward health when it’s hard to find an extra hour or two of spare time each day for exercise, though we cannot entirely dismiss exercise.
Is your physical health keeping you from accessing the fullness of temple blessings? One key reason I plead with people to make healthy choices is that some are so embarrassed by their health that they refuse to date and marry. This so frequently being the case, we see that their unbridled appetites have become the idol they worship. I say idol because it has reached the point where it’s in the way of them getting on the covenant path. Their lack of attention to health has become a stumbling block between them and the temple, where marriages are made solemn for eternity. With such a powerful emphasis on the need for temple ordinances from the prophets, we ought to be terrified of anything that threatens to get in the way of us and the temple, and fight whoever those enemies are head on. Being obese disadvantages you from marriage creation in a few ways. First, the human body was not designed to be obese, and our biological programming sends us alert signals that create feelings of undesirability for romantic relations with obese persons, perhaps as a way of warning us that obesity leads to death. Further, when people see an obese person, for bettor or worse they associate that with lack of self control and lack of self esteem, and fear that these weaknesses will be manifest in other areas of life, which can be a great defect when trying to get along in a marriage, control finances, work towards goals, and raise children. I explain these things so the reader will not think that I’m intolerant and overly judgmental of obese people. To consider obesity as “just another acceptable lifestyle” (yes, I’ve seen it promoted that way) is actually Satanic, because it leads to the destruction of bodies, which are the temple of God. To consider that a state of obesity is a healthy state of life is to deny the laws of nature, and thereby deny the God of nature, Jesus Christ. I love everyone, Jesus Christ loves everyone too, but ignorance of these things will only lead to disappointment. Love doesn’t mean condone. Love means care enough to try and warn someone that they are on a path to destruction. So take control of your health so you can be a better candidate for marriage and temple blessings. This is a hard subject for many to swallow, but in reality it’s just illustrating that we cannot reject spiritual commandments and not expect them to have negative spiritual consequences. D&C 89 gives the standard of health, if we set it aside, spiritual anti-blessings / curses invariably come. The D&C teaches that blessings are always predicated on obedience to laws; the converse of this is that curses are always predicated on disobedience to laws. For those who don’t like the world “cursings”, we can call it ‘living in the world with a lesser degree of the assistance of God.’ To insist that we can ignore God’s councils and still be worthy of all of his blessings is to deny the word of God. What will God say when we make a case that we didn’t have an opportunity to marry in this life but yet spent our days destroying our bodies? Some people are obese because of circumstances beyond their control, but most do not. Further, often the Satanic chains of hell are sown one thread at a time. For example, chronic conditions can develop after a while of denying health to the body. Then the chain is set, and our health is sometimes out of our control. But the chance to take control was there earlier, and we denied it. The same is true regarding addiction: some say, and rightly so, “I literally can’t help it, I have to use drugs/alcohol.” Yes, they may have become bound in chains of addiction and have no more choice in the matter, but earlier before they were into it that far, they did have a choice. They crossed the line, and lost their agency in that matter. Satan loves it when we lose agency, but it’s never his fault, always ours. We are perfectly accountable for the messes we get ourselves into. He can tempt us sure, but it’s up to us to make choices even in the midst of temptation. God is a merciful judge, but he also isn’t one to be toyed with. You and I had better be able to make a strong case that we realy truly did try our best, and that we never gave up, no matter how discouraged we became. A truly sad state is when someone says that they’ve tried to change and can’t, and resign themselves to a life of bad choices. To make such a claim is to deny the power of Christ. Long have the prophets taught that he can reach deeper than any despair, so don’t give up. Don’t be a sideline spectator of your destiny. Make the temple the chief object of your focus, then identify roadblocks in your way, and muster all your strength to obliterate those road blocks, and rush into the house of the Lord!
You must beg your Father in Heaven through prayer in the name of Jesus Christ to give you power to overcome your health issues, to bridle your appetites, to understand revealed principles of health, to learn what the sciences have to offer in the corpus of studies on nutrition and health, to gain every principle which you lack in the righteous and obedient pursuit to be a good steward of the body given to you by Christ.
Surely one of the best ways to share the gospel of our Lord is to show that we have found genuine happiness by embracing it, so lets not let health be the thorn in the side any longer keeping us back from finding more happiness in life, happiness which God intends for us to have and share.
Some think that it is pompous and proud to spend any time dealing with the self. Joseph Smith taught, “Some people entirely denounce the principle of self-aggrandizement as wrong. But it is a correct principle, and may be indulged upon only one role or plan – and that is to elevate, benefit and bless others first. If you will elevate others, the very work itself will exalt you. Upon no other plan can a man justly and permanently aggrandize himself.” (Joseph Smith, Young Woman’s Journal, vol. 2, p. 3660). It’s noteworthy that Joseph says to lift others first. President Henry B. Eyring recently spoke of Christlike service which members gave to others facing natural disaster, before even meeting their own needs. He taught that there is a time and a place to put others’ needs before those of your own. However we must take caution: if you have a chronic legacy of neglecting your health in the name of helping others, you must make adjustments, you have carried out the principle of service beyond its proper bounds, and you must go now and pluck the beam from your own eye so you can see better to remove the mote from the eyes of others. You can’t excuse a lifetime of neglect. From time to time, heroic efforts on your behalf will be required, and your own needs will take the back shelf. But those who ignore regular maintenance of their bodies are practicing neglect. The prophets have said that if we find anything lacking in ourselves, it is our duty to pray for the gift we lack so we can overcome whatever trial is before us. The Book of Mormon prophet called us to do all things in wisdom and order. One of the heroic efforts which you are called upon to make is the long-term management of your body.
I speak of these things not to say that they are more important than other items, but because one doesn’t need to look far, usually not farther than the mirror, to see that we as a society have fallen into gluttony in mass, and do not practice self-control. We are dying in mass from self induced causes. A BYU professor of biology Benjamin Bikman gave a lecture on this topic titled “The Plagues of Prosperity” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xefdEXfG9j0). The D&C revelation section 89 was designed to help us avoid these plagues. Lets take good care of our health on a regular basis so we can spend less time in hospitals, less time in shame, less time in gymnasiums making frantic efforts to hide bad dietary choices under the blanket, so we can spend more time doing the work of the Lord, and thereby finding true happiness for ourselves, putting ourselves in an ideal and persuasive position to point others likewise to that happy state we enjoy.
Both our physical and spiritual health require consistent efforts, moderation, balance, and dedication. We must spend significant effort in both regards. These analogies also apply to taking time out of our day for doing missionary work, and how missionary work can be successful with consistent attention to it.
-look and live: the serpent on staff: easy but need consistent. This applies to all of God’s commandments. If they are procrastinated and avoided, they become hard or impossible.
-I asked a friend who struggles with morbid obesity but is very active in the church. I preface this by saying we are all morbidly obese in our own way. All of us have much to improve. And some perhaps even many of cases of morbid or moderate obesity have to do with health issues. In fact, technically speaking the BMI says I am obese. In my case it’s a plain old case of neglect, and I’m working on that. I asked my friend, how much time would you be willing to spend each day on improving your physical health? All day was the reply. Via eating patterns etc. But I said “let me rephrase it. How much time not multitasking, just doing fitness?” A pause and the reply, “10 minutes”. I just did a nutrition class in nursing program so this stuff is on my mind. My nutrition professor believed we need an hour a day to maintain good health in our sedimentary lifestyles.
I think at the root of this woman’s case is that she thinks she will let down God if she takes time to do things other than family history work, or some other form of service to others. I submit it is God’s will that we try to keep all his commandments. We must beware how we use our time. Missionary work takes time. Sometimes it’s time scrolling Facebook. Many of us might do too much of that. But some is important. Etc.
-The spirit will help us keep the word of wisdom. Sometimes however, we say exercise and missionary work for people w/ too much time on hands, like my friend with serious health issues who was willing only to take only ’10 min’ /day on non-multitasking health, for example. We know we are accountable to God and we like to work lots to please God. But we have permission to take time for our health and for missionary work! The admission to take time to be holy includes take time to play basketball with your friends, or time to play board games with your kids or friends or neighbors!
-Rare do elderly with health issues have just 1 issue, but “comorbidity” multiple system failure. I get chips and soda for tough days; my wife reminds me it’s going to get me. I’m working on that.
-Missionary work, like physical and spiritual health maintenance, also takes time.
-The command to care for our health and do missionary work has this aspect, “Thou Shalt Party and make merry with thy friends.” Who are my friends? Same as who is our neighbor. These commandments are some of the more particularly happy thank-God commandments.
– Like health issues, some of us have great excuses for not exercising/missionary working. Like a bad foot meaning no walking. My nutrition professor says cases where someone is so sick they can’t do any type of fitness are almost nonexistent.
-Elder Holland said recently that if we do not pay for health now, we will pay later.
-My boss said to me once when she saw me with a lunch brought from home ‘I can’t pack homemade lunch’. I guess in some circumstance this could be true. I said “it’s about priorities.” She said no I just can’t, I work too much.: I don’t think she got what I was saying. Perhaps her ultra-nice truck could go so she wouldn’t have to work so many hours to pay for it and could put attention to her critical health issues. We don’t judge others, but we do try to teach and uplift ourselves and others in the ways of wisdom, and find balance in keeping all of God’s commandments.
-you’ll never have more time, God will always give you plenty of assignments all through your life, and your mental obsession with doing tasks won’t suddenly end just because you graduate college or get some promotion, or a kid grows up or you get more money or something
-you don’t have endless tomorrows to set things straight; thousands get diabetes, what makes you so different than them? Do you think they wanted it or saw it coming? No, and neither do you, but it is coming.
-you live in the debt-oriented mindset of our time, thinking that just because loans are available, that’s the only way to live. You have amassed health debt. All those pounds and lack of muscle are like dollars you owe. Time to turn it around and live for not the immediate present, but for the future. Time to seriously journey toward the day when you will be debt free and able to give greatly. Time to turn the focus from you to charity
-you think God cares about your giving or your using time to serve, but he cares about you, about your health, about how you manage your person; of all the people you’re taking care of, another that you’ve been commanded to take care of is yourself. Don’t have the hyper-savior syndrome where you think that everything will fall apart if you take some time for your own health now and then – Christ (the prototypical savior) taught temperance.
-don’t think that those who do fitness are just people with too much time on their hands; if you want to talk about more time, consider the time you won’t be in a hospital, and the added years of life. Consider the increased focus which will come as you make health a priority. It’s the healthy people who really respect time and take time seriously. Of course, there are the occasional idiot who are healthy and yet clueless, don’t let them cloud your vision to the path God has commanded you to walk.
-don’t think fitness and diet are suggestions; they are commandments from God; neglect of one’s body is a serious issue; just think what society would be like if all were healthy – more sensitivity to the spirit would be the key gift; now how are you going to help them be healthy if you aren’t healthy first? Truly one of the evils of our time is the idea that ‘everyone is doing it’ on account of poor health choices. As Joel Fuhrman says, you must choose to be different than the normal.
Acquiring a Taste for Zion Culture
Taste buds adapt to lifestyle. Similarly, we can come away from Babylon culture and start to learn to love better culture. Like a fat person can learn to enjoy eating salad and other things which will bring savor and health, and the junk food becomes sour to his taste with time, and he weeps for the time he lost before transitioning to the higher lifestyle. This being said, we define Babylon culture as an attitude which mocks God and his laws; multiculturalism is a beautiful thing and we can embrace each other’s differences and learn from each other as we together learn to live the higher culture. I think heaven will have all sorts of song, dance, dress, etc., inasmuch as they are wholesome (and that rules out much of popular music of the last century). There is so much good out there we don’t need to bother with the bad.
Joseph Smith spoke of doctrine, that he can taste good doctrine, he said that we can too. Pray for discernment and follow the subtle guidance of the spirit to learn the ways of the kingdom of God.
Things physically healthy people do
Imagine the health gods, those people who give glory to god by their stunning beauty and athleticism, which effects all aspects of their lives positively.
These are characteristics of such a person:
Sleep – can’t let things get in the way of this; 8 hours is the standard to seek, but this varies by person
Healthy foods – have to be proactive
Destress via non procrastination and techniques
Workout and run and stretch; don’t injure body in sport, so take it easy in sport until at safe weight
Take responsibility
Snacks – they have fruits veggies nuts and water
They don’t eat refined foods
Decide beforehand things you will and won’t eat. If WFPB is the right way, then commit.
Be ok with focusing on other things than food – don’t you remember Gandhi? you don’t have to be flooded with a king’s dish every day.
Don’t let sickness or laziness of others be an excuse to not be strong
And A Few Reasons Why to be Healthy,
Gain focus and retention power in studies.
Gain persuasion for exponential missionary work, including video and fearless 1:1.
Enjoy and relax in social settings, the which you hope to have much more of.
Avoid diabetes & heart failure.
The body is connected to the spirit, and a healthy body can open doors for spiritual revelations.
Pure joy from health leads a person to be motivated to excel in all other duties of life, enthusiastically!
