Background: Spiritual

Post Number: 13
Days of Tracking: 1/1

Since today is the Lord's day, I thought I'd give a little peak into my Spiritual Background. I had originally planned on providing my educational background to explain what I knew about the science of weight loss ahead of my spiritual background, but here you have it.

I am a card-carrying member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly referred to as a Mormon. But let me fill you in on a little Baptist secret I learned. There was an instructional pamphlet used to train Baptists when heading into Mormon Country to convert people to Christ. They would ask someone if they were LDS. If the person responded in the affirmative, then the pamphlet suggested they keep going. If the person responded that they were Mormon, then the pamphlet suggested that they do their best to fellowship this person into the fold of Christ.

Yup, I'm LDS. I've been rather picky about that distinction long before I learned there was any meaning outside of the LDS church.

So, what does this have to do with weight loss? Several things, actually. I feel I am held to a very high standard of behavior, responsibility, interaction, and more. I am responsible for caring for my body as a temple of the Lord. While this is a New Testament explanation for why our bodies need to be treated as sacred, there is the additional explanation of how to do that in the Word of Wisdom. This chapter of scripture comes from latter-day revelation known as the Doctrine and Covenants. So not only do I have the responsibility to care for my body, I have a road map. And what's more, the road map includes some incredible blessings (see the last four verses, 18-21).

But there is still more. Everything I have has been given as a gift to me from the Lord: MBWM, Horse, Asian Red Fox, Iguana, Jaguar, Lemur, Quail, Shrike, Shrike's passing, house, computer, wit, intelligence, weakening eyesight, love for my wife, love for my kids, love of music, love of reading, love of chemistry, propensity toward obesity, inclination for napping, everything I could possibly think of with one exception, is given to me by the Lord as a gift. There is only one gift I can give to the Lord that is truly mine to give. That is my will. When I use my will to better those things I am responsible for, including my body, I am giving to the Lord my greatest gift.

I am even more blessed in that the Gospel allows for corrections. I, of myself, am not, nor will I every be perfect. I will make mistakes and eat my baby's doughnut. That happened this morning. Don't worry. He went a fetched himself another. I will fail and feed on fast food on the way home to dinner. And here I can forgive myself, set myself back on the strait and narrow, and look forward to bigger and better successes. Feelings of regret, guilt, and defeat do not serve me or the Lord. So pushing these feelings aside, I make changes and correction, using prayer and fasting to guide me.

And so, with a prayerful song in my heart, I turn over the next day, excited by the opportunity. Stay turned. There is more to come concerning weight loss information based on science and religion.

Yours in the joyful renewal found in the Gospel,

Eliot

P.S.: My mother is catholic. My father is a Jew. That makes me a cashew.