Know Ye Not?

I, like most mothers, experience hectic mornings.  Both of my children despise bathing and dressing, and they were blessed with lungs that allow them to powerfully express their disapproval.  One day my littlest one was exceptionally frustrated with my requests in preparing for the day.  I found our morning routine extending longer than normal, as I directed my attention to the individualized love she was needing in those moments.  As I sat rocking this sweet baby, my dynamic toddler ran from the connecting door of her room, stark naked.  My initial emotion was exhaustion.  I had barely won the battle of clothing her, and the victory had not been easily attained.  In my mind, I quickly started making another plan of action, but her tender voice brought me back to the present.  She looked up into my eyes with wondrous excitement, pointing to her body, and declared, “Mommy, look at my temple!  It is beautiful!”  In that moment, this tender child of God, evoked my mind to the piece of my testimony I have been striving to master all my life.  My body: it is a temple. 

We exist in a world that devalues the majesty of our bodies.  It seeks to have us believe that these glorious creations from God, are nothing more than a material object, one to be altered and modified.  We quickly become convinced that we are flawed.  That no matter our appearance, or our attempts at change, we are always inferior.  We are pummeled by voices or images that endeavor to persuade us that in order to be appealing we must fit a certain mold, maintain a specific shape, and acquire a particular look.  No longer do we view our reflection through spiritual eyes, but observe ourselves in a worldly perspective.  Our glorious gift from our loving Father in Heaven, the one he patterned after His very own, is no longer cherished.  We replace gratitude with criticism and disapproval.  Imagine the irony of it all.  Our premortal spirits eagerly awaiting the opportunity to arrive in this earthly dispensation to receive a body, only to collect it and be dissatisfied.  The words that Paul wrote to the Corinthian Saints become pertinent to us now:

“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not of your own?  For we are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

We have knowledge that the things of most worth, Satan strikes the fiercest.  Being aware of this, we can perceive that our bodies are something to be treasured, because his efforts are indefatigable.  One of Satan’s objectives is to have us see ourselves as pieces, and to define our self worth from those fragments.  He aims to blur the idea of collectivity all together.  When we focus solely on our external appearances, we are unable to identify all that we are, and everything that we offer, both inside and out.  Our emphasis stations around temporal advances, and we lose attention of enhancing the spirit that lies within our frame.  We completely destroy the recognition that our body is an individualized temple, one that has divine pieces of our Father intertwined.  Satan absolutely delights in this.  He gains rapturous happiness from our deprecation.  Why is this so enthralling to him?  Because he is miserably tortured with his inability to acquire a physical body of his own.  We have been taught through the scriptures that the merging of the spirit and body, is the only way to receive a fullness of joy.  It is a primary reason why we departed from our Father’s side.  We ached for a physical body, and were exultant in the opportunity provided.  Satan’s rebellion, as well as his followers, cost them this chance.  How intensely they still desire to posses one!  Their desperation is identified in the story of Jesus healing the man who was possessed with many spirits.  When Christ spoke to the demonic spirits within him, they begged to be cast into the bodies of pigs nearby.  Anything that could resemble a physical form, they craved.  The Savior agreed to this, and the spirits entered into the pigs, ran into the sea and were drowned.  This story can illuminate our understanding that our bodies are sacred privileges, and should be regarded as such. 

There are multiple prices that we pay when we enable Satan’s temptations and worldly influences to change our perspective on our holy temples.  One is that we no longer allow the gentle Lord to define our worth, we permit the world to specify our value.  Media-based visualizations and worldly ideology of what a man or woman should be, become our model.  One that we will never be sufficient for.  We will always be passé, substandard, faulty.  However, when we look to our Father and Savior, we will discover that we are unparalleled, extraordinary, beautiful.  These perceptions will take time to become concrete.  Yet, as we seek to ceaselessly be in Their presence, Their vision will be our own, and our gratitude will spill over.  We must pray to see our temples, as they are viewed through Their eyes. 

The importance of our bodies has never been made more clear to us then through the Resurrection of our Savior.  On the third day, He was reunited, both spirit and body.  As He stood in front of Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb, His glory was beyond expression.  He had come back to retrieve the gift His Father bestowed upon Him when entering this earth.  He knew the magnificence of His temple, and sought to bring His spirit back to its holy sanctuary.  His sacrifices have allowed us this same opportunity.  We all, every single child of God, will be resurrected.  Our bodies and spirits will consolidate into an eternal whole, one that will never be divided from again.  It is a prize beyond measure.  How immensely grateful I am for my Redeemer and for His gift of Resurrection, that I may again become complete.    

Our bodies are truly temples to the Lord, and should be to us.  He constructed and fashioned them for us individually.  It stands as a holy place, one where our divine spirits take residency.  We truly are not of our own.  We must seek to treat it, speak of it, and view it as the remarkable creation that it is.  For it will be ours, even into eternity.  We cannot allow worldly concepts and beliefs to decrease our gratitude for this gift.  We must refrain from providing Satan with opportunities to make us miserable like unto himself.  And on this most sanctified and glorious day, as we celebrate the Resurrection of our beloved Savior and Redeemer, we can follow the example of a child, and fall to our knees while thankfully exclaiming: “Dear Father, look at my temple!  It is beautiful.”