Journal: How does good health affect your ability to house the Holy Ghost? How does being filled with the Holy Ghost beautify you?
I think good health affects all other aspects of your life, especially your mental and emotional health. I sometimes, okay, maybe often times, have trouble feeling good about myself because I am not considered "healthy and fit." By all measures, I am considered obese despite all efforts to be healthy through exercise and healthy eating. Since I'm not physically healthy, I spend a lot of energy thinking about how to be healthier, instead of listening to promptings of the Holy Ghost. There are things I cannot physically do because I'm not healthy which I'm sure block me from being used by the Lord to help others and receive promptings from the Holy Ghost to do so. Having a healthy body helps you to be healthy emotionally and spiritually. If we are not following the lord's commandments to have good health, then we miss out on opportunities to have the Holy Ghost with us and give us "great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures."
I want to be better following the counsel of the Word of Wisdom so that I can receive the promise that I "shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint." that promise means a lot to me as a person with asthma. I have never been able to run even a half mile without needing my rescue inhaler. I hate running because of it. I had to use it today at my HIIT class after an intense cardio segment. I wish I could get rid of it, and not need it anymore. I want to have better cardiovascular health so that asthma will have less of an effect on me and not stop me from exercises. But I'm not even sure if it works that way.
When I think of the Word of Wisdom, I always remember the "No strong or hot drinks, and No tobacco" commandments. Bu there are others that I sometimes forget, like eating fruits and vegetables that are in season, and eat meat sparingly and "only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine." That would take a lot of will power and time to change. I'm working on eating fruits and vegetables in season. Being a vegetarian during summer will be much more challenging, though I have noticed in past summers that I don't really feel like eating meat when it's hot unless it's fish or chicken or turkey.
This is a quote from the WSR page from someone's journal about this same challenge and I really liked it.
Parley P. Pratt:
“[The Holy Ghost] quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections; and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness and charity. It develops beauty of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation and social feeling. It invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens, and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being” (Key to the Science of Theology, 9th ed. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1965], p. 101).
I think that when the Holy Ghost dwells in us, it can make us appear more beautiful because having the spirit is a beautiful thing. It fills you with light and happiness. I have been praying a lot lately that I will be blessed for my efforts to work out and develop healthier eating habits. I haven't really seen much improvement. at least by the number on my scale. But perhaps I should instead be praying for the Holy Ghost to guide me in making healthier choices and to just be able to feel the Holy Ghost in me and have thanksgiving in all things that I eat.
Actually, I think that's my new goal-- to eat with thanksgiving. Every time.
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