Spiritual Health

Our spiritual health and relationship with our Father in Heaven must be our first concern if we are to make it back safe to Him. Just as our physical bodies need proper nourishment, so does our spiritual side. It must be fed vitamins of doctrine. The best sources of these vitamins are the scriptures and the Ensign (or New Era depending on age!). Particularly when the conference issue comes out, I begin a slow and consistent reading of it. It is a time-release vitamin pill, because it takes me about 5 months to read it all!

We also need to exercise the spirit by serving, with weight lifting by working on virtues like patience, kindness, and those listed in the 13th Article of Faith. Doing this gives us the ability to come to know God. As we do, we come to want to be with Him. We also become more like Him in the process. We become a new person, and poisons that would sicken or kill the spiritual side become less appealing. We also become less likely to injure ourselves in ways that require help from spiritual physicians (Bishops) to close wounds.

Heavenly Father has all the answers. We can get these answers as we become like Him. Then we can be happy. There is NO other way. So let's keep plugging away, trudging along on this telestial earth of pain, because it takes pain to help us grow. No pain, no gain! Through continual nourishment and exercise we become strong spiritually and also experience a portion of the joy we will get later.