Your Body Does Not Have to Be Perfect to Be Sacred
What If Your Body Was Meant for More Than Looking Good?
It's amazing how quickly one picture can ruin a perfectly good day.
Someone takes a group photo.
Everybody gathers around the phone.
And while everyone else seems to be looking at the memory, you're staring at yourself.
Why does my hair look like that?
Why am I standing like that?
Do I really look that big?
That skinny?
That short?
Why is my skin doing that?
Why couldn't I look more like them?
You can walk into the picture feeling completely fine and walk away from it suddenly noticing ten things about yourself you hadn't been thinking about five minutes earlier.
Because we live in a world that trains us to evaluate bodies constantly.
Scroll long enough and you'll find somebody with clearer skin.
Better hair.
More muscle.
A different body shape.
Better clothes.
Longer legs.
A different face.
And when comparison becomes the way you see yourself, there will always be someone available to make you feel like you're losing.
Jeremiah gives us a very different starting point.
Most people know Jeremiah 1:5 because God tells Jeremiah:
“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.”
We usually focus on:
“I knew thee.”
And we should.
It teaches something beautiful about premortal life.
But there is another phrase sitting right beside it:
“I formed thee.”
That matters too.
Scripture doesn't treat your body as some meaningless shell you're temporarily stuck inside.
Doctrine and Covenants teaches:
“The spirit and the body are the soul of man.”
—Doctrine and Covenants 88:15
Your body is part of your mortal experience and part of God's plan for you.
Through a body you can run.
Taste food.
Hear music.
Feel rain.
Learn to play an instrument.
Hold somebody's hand.
Work.
Laugh.
Cry.
Serve.
Create.
Take the sacrament.
Be baptized.
Receive priesthood ordinances.
Hug someone who is hurting.
Feel exhaustion after doing something difficult.
Watch a sunset.
Dance badly.
Dance well.
Trip over absolutely nothing and then immediately look around to see if anyone noticed.
Your body lets you experience mortality.
And that may be worth remembering because we sometimes reduce the body to one question:
How does it look?
Imagine judging a car only by the paint.
Never asking where it has taken you.
Never caring what it allows you to do.
Never thinking about the people you've traveled with or where you've been.
Only:
Is the paint perfect?
That's a pretty limited way to evaluate something designed to take you somewhere.
And it may be a pretty limited way to think about your body too.
You are so much more than the way your body looks.
That doesn't mean appearance doesn't matter to you.
It's okay to like looking nice.
It's okay to enjoy clothes.
It's okay to work out.
It's okay to fix your hair, wear makeup, build muscle, take care of your skin, or make healthy changes.
You can want to improve something about your body without believing your worth is waiting on the other side of that improvement.
Because here is one of the most freeing truths in the gospel:
Your body does not have to be perfect to be sacred.
Those are not the same thing.
Something can be unfinished and sacred.
Something can have limitations and be sacred.
Something can change with age and still be sacred.
Something can have scars and still be sacred.
Something can look different from somebody else's and still be sacred.
In fact, scripture openly acknowledges that our mortal bodies are not yet in their final condition.
Alma teaches that through the Resurrection:
“The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form.”
—Alma 11:43
Notice when perfection comes.
Resurrection.
God has actually promised physical perfection.
He just hasn't promised it during mortality.
That means you might be demanding something from your sixteen-year-old body that God Himself has scheduled for the Resurrection.
Your body is still changing.
Still aging.
Still mortal.
Still imperfect.
And because of Jesus Christ, that is not its final condition.
Perfection is a resurrection promise, not a mortal requirement.
That changes the way we can talk to ourselves.
Maybe you don't love everything about your body right now.
You don't have to stand in front of the mirror and pretend:
Everything about me is exactly the way I wish it were.
You can say something more honest and more doctrinally true:
My body is sacred even though it isn't perfect.
I can care for it without hating it.
I can appreciate what it allows me to do while still hoping for things to change.
Its present condition is not its final condition.
There is a huge difference between caring for something because you value it and constantly punishing it because you don't.
Maybe that is one question worth asking yourself:
Do I take care of my body because I appreciate it—or because I am at war with it?
Your Heavenly Father doesn't need you to win a beauty contest before He calls your body sacred.
And Jesus Christ did something astonishing with the human body.
He took one Himself.
He experienced hunger.
Fatigue.
Pain.
Sweat.
Thirst.
Injury.
Physical suffering.
Death.
And then He rose.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is God's declaration that the body matters enough to redeem.
One day every mortal limitation will be swallowed up in resurrection.
Until then, your assignment isn't physical perfection.
It is stewardship.
Care.
Gratitude.
Respect.
Patience.
And maybe learning to stop making peace with yourself wait until you finally look the way you think you should.
You can appreciate beauty without making beauty the price you have to pay in order to feel valuable.
Scripture
“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.”
—Jeremiah 1:5
“The spirit and the body are the soul of man.”
—Doctrine and Covenants 88:15
“Spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy.”
—Doctrine and Covenants 93:33
“The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form.”
—Alma 11:43
Reflection
When you think about your body, how often do you think about what it does compared with how it looks?
What has your body allowed you to experience lately that you're grateful for?
What is the difference between believing your body is perfect and believing it is sacred?
Do you ever postpone feeling good about yourself until some physical feature changes?
How would remembering the Resurrection change the way you think about a mortal physical limitation?
What would caring for your body look like if your motivation came from gratitude instead of criticism?
Today's Challenge
For the next seven days, try something different.
Each time you notice yourself becoming unnecessarily cruel about your body, don't replace the thought with something you don't actually believe.
Replace it with something true.
Instead of:
I hate my body.
Try:
My body is sacred even though it is imperfect.
Instead of:
I look terrible.
Try:
The way I look right now does not determine my worth.
Instead of:
I wish my body were more like theirs.
Try:
My body has a different story and a different mortal experience.
Then, once each day, thank Heavenly Father for one specific thing your body allowed you to do.
Walk to class.
Laugh with a friend.
Play a sport.
Work.
Sing.
Serve.
Eat something good.
Hold someone you love.
Worship.
Breathe.
Notice what changes when you spend less time asking:
How does my body compare?
and more time asking:
What has this body allowed me to experience and give?
Christ-Centered Thought
Jesus Christ makes it possible to look at an imperfect mortal body without despair.
Because mortality is not the ending.
The Savior's Resurrection means acne isn't permanent.
Scars aren't permanent.
Aging isn't permanent.
Disease isn't permanent.
Physical limitation isn't permanent.
Death isn't permanent.
Christ does not simply save some invisible part of you while discarding the rest.
He redeems the whole soul.
Your spirit.
Your body.
You.
So take care of the body you have.
Be patient with it.
Improve it in healthy ways.
Be grateful for it.
Let it carry you through all the experiences mortality is meant to teach you.
And remember:
Your body does not have to be perfect to be sacred.
Jesus Christ has already promised that perfection comes later.
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