Things as They Really Are - (Why Do We Need a Body? Cont'd)

This is a continuation of the blog post Why Do We Need Body? from September 2009. Most of this is quoting from the fireside talk by Things as They Really Are Elder Bednar and apostle of Jesus Christ given in May 2009. I removed the personal stories.

"[Satan's] attempts to influence us both to misuse our physical bodies and to minimize the importance of our bodies."

“Wherefore, I give unto them a commandment … : Thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known” (D&C 60:13).

I strongly believe that ... moments of regret and realization will come to each of us for our idle time and buried talents. We will not receive new talents and loose the ones that we have if we do not come back to reality. Nephi and Alma commanded their people to be industrious and produce much fruit just like our modern prophets and apostles.

"If [satan] cannot entice us to misuse our physical bodies, then one of his most potent tactics is to beguile you and me as embodied spirits to disconnect gradually and physically from things as they really are."

"Please be careful of becoming so immersed and engrossed in pixels, texting, ear buds, twittering, online social networking, and potentially addictive uses of media and the Internet that you fail to recognize the importance of your physical body and miss the richness of person-to-person communication."

People do forget how to interact with other people. Developing skills to win friends, influence people and build relationships do diminish over time if they are not continually developed.

"[Someone] may devote an inordinate amount of time to playing video games, chatting online, or in other ways allowing the digital to dominate things as they really are. Initially the investment of time may seem relatively harmless, rationalized as a few minutes of needed relief from the demands of a hectic daily schedule. But important opportunities are missed for developing and improving, for laughing and for creating a rich and enduring bond of emotional intimacy. Progressively, seemingly innocent entertainment can become a form of pernicious enslavement."

Elder Bednar mentions how important it is "To feel the warmth of a tender hug." this could not be done before we came to Earth. This cannot be done except in person. Our God is an individual God. We cannot gain salvation through an email, a movie, video game, etc. but through the grace that God has given us. God touches our hearts individually and we are to connect with other people in a similar way. Elder Bednar mentions the importance of seeing "the sincerity in the eyes of another person as testimony is shared—all of these things experienced as they really are through the instrument of our physical body—could be sacrificed for a high fidelity fantasy that has no lasting value. If you and I are not vigilant, we can become “past feeling” (1 Nephi 17:45), as did Laman and Lemuel long ago."

Elder Bednar says "Today I raise an apostolic voice of warning about the potentially stifling, suffocating, suppressing, and constraining impact of some kinds of cyberspace interactions and experiences upon our souls."

Media is not inherently bad.

"We should ... use its many capabilities in appropriate ways to learn, to communicate, to lift and brighten lives, and to build and strengthen the Church;"

"[Satan] will attempt to substitute the monotony of virtual repetition for the infinite variety of God’s creations and convince us we are merely mortal things to be acted upon instead of eternal souls blessed with moral agency to act for ourselves."

"You will need to be obedient, to honor sacred covenants, and to discern things consistently as they really are in today’s world that grows ever more confused and wicked."

Remember the commandment that we all have: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."