D&C 93:30-37

Before we get into today’s study I want to go back into the last entry when we talked about how we can grow spiritually, step by step, in order to become more like the Savior. Again, the Lord knows exactly what I need to hear to further understand and apply his teachings. Driving to work today I listened to the December 2015 Ensign article entitled “Navigating the Currents of Life,” which says, “As in everything else, the Savior is a great source to look to in knowing where to start. We don’t know much about Christ’s early life, but we do know that he ‘increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.’ This implies at least four categories for potential self-improvement goals: mental, physical, spiritual, and social. President Howard W. Hunter suggested that we become engaged in ‘the personal pursuit of hobbies or crafts, the seeking of knowledge and wisdom, particularly of the things of God, and the development and honing of skills.’ Other categories might be community, family, creativity, finance, or education.” I thought that this was really applicable because it was very specific and referenced what I had been studying.

93:31-35 - The Lord teaches us that there is all this truth and knowledge and understanding, but just because it’s there doesn’t mean that we benefit from it because, the Lord says, “Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light. And every man whose spirit receiveth not the light is under condemnation.” I don’t think that this is a case of someone being condemned because they haven’t had the opportunity to receive light and truth but because they have had the opportunity and they’ve refused it. I think it’s interesting that the Lord says that “every man whose spirit receiveth not the light” which indicates that it’s the spirit that can be sensitive to the truth and transitions into the next topic, “for man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fullness of joy; and when separated, many cannot receive a fullness of joy. The elements are the tabernacle of God.” The IM teaches, “We are dual beings comprised of both a spirit and a physical body. These bodies together form the soul. Death separates the body and the spirit temporarily, but the Resurrection connects them inseparably. The Resurrection paves the way for a ‘fulness of joy.’ The physical body is a gift from God and is sacred. In this verse and elsewhere, the physical body is compared to a temple. Part of our judgment will be based on our treatment of the body. The Prophet Joseph Smith explained: ‘We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God in the celestial kingdom. The great principles of happiness consists in having a body.’ The devil, jealous that he cannot have a physical body, tries to tempt us to abuse it. The Lord, on the other hand, has given the Word of Wisdom and other counsel so we can know what is good and bad for the body, or how to care for the temple the Lord has given us.” I’ve always really struggled with the concept of the body being a temple, or being anything special at all, and I guess that’s because this life is all that I can remember so as far as I’m concerned now, I’ve always had a body and I have struggled with hatred of my body but I’ve had some insights recently that have been interesting. The first one that I had was on Sunday, we had stake conference and me and the kids were really struggling to get through it, I wanted to leave and come home so badly, so I prayed for us to have the strength to get through it, and the next thing I knew we only had 10 minutes left. It’s been very encouraging to me to learn recently that the Lord’s grace is sufficient for me to thrive. As I struggle with doing the things he wants me to do, when I turn to him and ask for help, he gives it to me, it’s really amazing. How am I able to eat better? I pray a lot. How did I make it through stake conference? I prayed a lot. Anyway, one of the things that we did to help pass the time and stay quiet and focused during stake conference was, I took my hair down and let my kids play with it, braid it, twist it up, and I realized that it feels really good to have my hair brushed, the sensation of having my hair pulled on while the kids tried their different designs, and it occurred to me that even if I had “hair” as a spirit, those sensations wouldn’t be there. I realized that, as a spirit in the premortal life, waiting for my turn to be born, I was probably so excited to feel that, to have this experience with my body that I just knew that I would treasure every moment of it and I would care for my body so meticulously, but yet here I am 34 years old and for the most part I have not cared for nor treasured my body. So I guess it’s time to start doing that. The second insight that I had about this concept just came to me right now, and it’s more specific to women. It’s difficult to imagine why Satan is so focused on women hating their bodies so much, because for me, the logic would be, Satan is a man, therefore he would be angrier with other men for having bodies and he doesn’t. I’m listening to Steve Harvey’s book “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man”, and while I don’t subscribe to everything that he talks about, one thing he said spoke directly to this concept. In a manner that indicated that he knew that it this would be difficult for women to believe, he declared that women are powerful, that our power has built and destroyed empires, shaped the history of the world. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. He knows that righteous women raise righteous children, build righteous families and serve righteous purposes. If he can convince women that they are weak, vulnerable, and helpless, then our influence is limited. How does he do this? How does he teach us, as women, that we are worthless? He teaches us that who we are is not important, that our worth is determined only through our bodies and what we can do for men. He takes our focus off of who we are, our achievements, anything like that, and then makes us believe that our only importance is our physical bodies, then he teaches us to hate our bodies. Our bodies are our only important thing and we hate them, there’s definitely no way to come out of that successful. But the Lord tells us that a fullness of joy comes with our spirit is with our body, that we are happiest with both together.

93:36-37 - Verse 36 has changed my understanding of God and how I perceive religion in general. The Lord tells us “the glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. Light and truth forsake that evil one.” DJR comments “they teach that true ‘intelligence’ is the behavior of forsaking evil. We are empowered to forsake evil by the ‘light and truth’ that we accept from God. (In this context, ‘intelligence’ has nothing to do with IQ.)” I hear all the time in all different places, “Glory to God!” or “to God be the glory” and similar phrases to that, and I’ve always wondered what that means, what does “glory” mean? Does it mean that everyone likes you? Does it mean that you are all powerful? Does it mean acknowledgement and recognition? And those definitions were never congruent for me with a humble God, but when I heard that “the glory of God is intelligence,” that made sense to me, that was a fully acceptable connection in the definition for me. The IM quotes Elder John A. Widtsoe as explaining: “Among the many great truths revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith, none is more beloved by the Church than ‘The Glory of God is intelligence’ The word intelligence, as used in common speech, means readiness in learning, quickness of mind. Its higher Gospel meaning is more profound. The intelligence man is he who seeks knowledge and sues it in accordance with the plan of the Lord for human good. This is implied in the revelation from which the quotation is made, for the full sentence reads, ‘The glory of God is intelligence, or in other words, light and truth.’ When men follow the light their knowledge will always be well used. Intelligence, then, becomes but another name for wisdom. In the language of mathematics we may say that knowledge, plus the proper use of knowledge, equals intelligence, or wisdom. In this sense intelligence becomes the goal of the successful life. Knowledge is one of the means by which such intelligence is attained; the use of knowledge is equally as important, for it gives life and direction to knowledge… Thus it often happens that a person of limited knowledge but who earnestly and prayerfully obeys the law, rises to a higher intelligence or wisdom, than one of vast Gospel learning who does not comply in his daily life with the requirements of the Gospel. Obedience to law is mark of intelligence.” It takes a certain type of person to seek truth and knowledge. I think that the first quality has to be a little bit of humility because we have to acknowledge that we don’t know everything. The quest for truth has to be met with an openness to go where the truth takes you, it’s kind of an abstract concept. The glory of God is intelligence, that’s a game changer.