This month's issue of the church magazines center on the theme of the "The Gift of Our Bodies":
President Nelson even contributed an entire article! Given that he was, by profession, a skilled doctor I always enjoy hearing him speak of the miracle of our physical bodies.
But why the unexpected focus on this topic? Let's face it, mortality is our only shot at learning to realize and harness the amazing potential our Heavenly Father's great gift to us: our own physical body.
Satan forfeited his own opportunity to receive a physical body by attempting to usurp the glory of God and so he is hell-bent on distracting us from the opportunity we qualified for despite his first efforts. As Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles stated:
Because a physical body is so central to the Father’s plan of happiness and our spiritual development, Lucifer seeks to frustrate our progression by tempting us to use our bodies improperly. One of the ultimate ironies of eternity is that the adversary, who is miserable precisely because he has no physical body, entices us to share in his misery through the improper use of our bodies. The very tool he does not have is thus the primary target of his attempts to lure us to spiritual destruction. ("We Believe in Being Chaste")
Here are a few scripture references that I've been pondering relative to this subject:
32 For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.
27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;
124 Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.
13 O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe.
23 Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust.
27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.
-Michael Whatcott