Media Vs. the Word of Wisdom

I recently had a very explicit epiphany: Your body is made up of what you put into it, and it functions accordingly. The food we eat is what our vital organs have to thank for keeping us alive. It is what goes into building our muscles and organs and gives us the energy to perform our daily tasks. So what if we put nutrient-deficient or polluted substances into our body? I’m no doctor, but it seems to me like the body will either reject it and eject it, store it elsewhere, or use the inadequate substitute anyway in place of the real nutrient that it needs. What if we consistently eat faulty or impure substances? The body tries to draw from an empty well. It can’t function properly, and the deficit manifests itself in ways like lack of energy, slower metabolism, illness, mental incapacities or system failure. How long can we expect our car to run if we put oil in our gas tank?

It's kind of like when Andrew Carnegie started up his steel mills. Raw steel wasn't strong enough to use for heavy duty projects because of the impurities found within it. So Andrew Carnegie figured out a way in his mills to eliminate the weak elements such as sulfur, phosphorus, and excess carbon and to add alloying elements such as manganese, nickel, and chromium to produce a steel beam strong enough to support a building. With the food that is available to us now, we need to figure out a way to get it into its purest form so that our vital organs will be strong enough to sustain our lives for years to come. Our biggest battle is convenience. It's not very convenient to have to prepare your food before you eat it, but such is the way to a healthy lifestyle.

Since our bodies are a precious gift we were given by the Lord to house our spirits and to use as a tool for progression, it seems to me like the Lord would also give us everything we need to take care of it and keep it healthy. To me that means that the closer to natural the food is that we eat, the better it is for us. The more efficiently and easily our body can use it, the more energy we have and the better we feel. Up until the last few decades the world has always eaten natural food from the earth. Obviously there were still natural foods that were more wholesome and preferable than others such as in the story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshac and Abed-nego as they requested to be fed differently from the other boys in the house of King Nebuchadnezzar; but never has there been so much confusion in the nutritional world as there is now, and never has there been so much nutritional deficiency. Substances that appeal to our senses and preserve our food are now being used excessively which is causing severe imbalance to our diet as a nation.

The bottom line is: What we eat determines how we function. Here's my recent realization: It's the same with our spirits. Everything that we expose our minds to determines how we spiritually and mentally develop. If the mental activities we choose to engage in are stimulating, educational and will help us learn then our mental capacity will expand and we can expect to do better in life. We can more easily understand certain principles of life and therefore our actions will change and our quality of life will be much improved. For example, someone learning about the Plan of Salvation for the first time might come to understand and value life in a different way than they did previously. They will change their behavior in order to qualify for the blessings of Heaven and as a result receive extensive earthly blessings for keeping the commandments. If, however, we choose to fill our minds with dirty or pointless entertainment such as what is rampant in music, movies and social media today, what do we gain? We are entertained for the moment. It is a waste of precious time and you will not have anything to show for it except maybe a few movie lines. Even worse, though, if what you are watching is offensive, not only will you be unreceptive to the promptings of the Spirit, but you actually digress rather than progress. All those hours you spend at church, studying your scriptures and spiritually "climbing a mountain" will be less effective if you are just going to roll back down that mountain by exposing yourself to filth. I don't know about you, but when I go hiking I would rather just go straight up. The journey is so much harder than it needs to be if we are consistently taking one step back for every two steps forward. And all for what? Entertainment? Allowing contamination to penetrate your thoughts causes one to become def to spiritual promptings and blind to truth. It is a literal spiritual incapacitation, and we all do it so deliberately and so frequently. Sure, there is a place for music and entertainment; but there is never a place for obscenity or vulgarity. 

Because we are spirit children of our heavenly parents, and physical children of our earthly parents, we need to work to grow both spiritually and physically. Natural foods are the best way to receive proper physical nourishment. Spiritual promptings from the Holy Ghost are the best way to receive spiritual nourishment. Any time we block that channel with the Spirit we are literally engaging in spiritual starvation. But the more we allow the Spirit to penetrate our hearts, the better we come to know the Savior, the stronger our testimony becomes, the more good we do and the more blessings we receive. We thrive in all areas of life. "If there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."