Today is Stake Conference, and I am home with a cold. I hate missing Sunday Services because I really love the "pick-me-up" that I get from not only taking the Sacrament and learning the gospel but being surrounded by loving people as well.
To pacify myself, I jumped online. A friend of my husband, now a friend of mine, posted a link to a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland. The talk is titled To Young Women.
One paragraph stood out to me:
"I plead with you young women to please be more accepting of yourselves, including your body shape and style, with a little less longing to look like someone else. We are all different. Some are tall, and some are short. Some are round, and some are thin. And almost everyone at some time or other wants to be something they are not! But as one adviser to teenage girls said: “You can’t live your life worrying that the world is staring at you. When you let people’s opinions make you self-conscious you give away your power. … The key to feeling [confident] is to always listen to your inner self—[the real you.]” And in the kingdom of God, the real you is “more precious than rubies.” Every young woman is a child of destiny and every adult woman a powerful force for good. I mention adult women because, sisters, you are our greatest examples and resource for these young women. And if you are obsessing over being a size 2, you won’t be very surprised when your daughter or the Mia Maid in your class does the same and makes herself physically ill trying to accomplish it. We should all be as fit as we can be—that’s good Word of Wisdom doctrine. That means eating right and exercising and helping our bodies function at their optimum strength. We could probably all do better in that regard. But I speak here of optimum health; there is no universal optimum size."
To pacify myself, I jumped online. A friend of my husband, now a friend of mine, posted a link to a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland. The talk is titled To Young Women.
One paragraph stood out to me:
"I plead with you young women to please be more accepting of yourselves, including your body shape and style, with a little less longing to look like someone else. We are all different. Some are tall, and some are short. Some are round, and some are thin. And almost everyone at some time or other wants to be something they are not! But as one adviser to teenage girls said: “You can’t live your life worrying that the world is staring at you. When you let people’s opinions make you self-conscious you give away your power. … The key to feeling [confident] is to always listen to your inner self—[the real you.]” And in the kingdom of God, the real you is “more precious than rubies.” Every young woman is a child of destiny and every adult woman a powerful force for good. I mention adult women because, sisters, you are our greatest examples and resource for these young women. And if you are obsessing over being a size 2, you won’t be very surprised when your daughter or the Mia Maid in your class does the same and makes herself physically ill trying to accomplish it. We should all be as fit as we can be—that’s good Word of Wisdom doctrine. That means eating right and exercising and helping our bodies function at their optimum strength. We could probably all do better in that regard. But I speak here of optimum health; there is no universal optimum size."
I've always loved Jeffrey R. Holland and look forward to hearing him speak. His talk in the most recent General Conference was more than amazing.
2 comments:
I LOVE Elder Holland and I miss being in Young Women :-( although that talk is really for all of us, isn't it?
I've been really thrilled that I can download talks onto my MP3 player-- sure makes being stuck in the car nicer, and I imagine it helps when you're trapped in because of illness. Feel better soon!!
Thank you!
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