Saturday, July 20, 2013

Doctrine and Covenants 101:36-37

"Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full.
Therefore, care not for the body, neither the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul."
Doctrine and Covenants 101:36-37


Today it seems to me that these verses go together really well.  Fear not unto death, don't care for the body... care for the soul.  I think telling us to "fear not even unto death" can seem scary.  On this side of the veil, death seems like such a HUGE thing, and it is hard to see past that to eternity.  And God knows that, and he understands how hard it is.  But he still asks us to trust him.  In order to have fulness of joy, we have to get past that hurdle.  God is our only way to that complete happiness.  And as further explanation of that, God explains that we don't need to worry about our bodies, but we should really be worried about our souls.  Which is another thing that can turn our worlds upside down, right?  We're so busy in this life trying to put roofs over our heads, and concerned about health and weight loss and whether our noses look too big or whether people think we're ugly.  And those are natural things to think... but wow, when we consider what God is saying here, what crappy priorities, right?
Today, instead of worrying about death and physical health and whether we look externally ugly, let's learn from God (and Dorian Gray), and spend more time on beautifying ourselves internally.  Let's see if our souls are unhealthy.  Let's go on a *spiritual* diet, and start getting that part of our existence in shape. Spiritual death is way scarier than physical death.

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