I love this talk. It resonates with me. I think it is especially fascinating knowing that President Nelson is a great surgeon with special knowledge of the body and its capabilities and the intricate nature of our bodies. I am thankful for my body. I am thankful for the health that I have enjoyed. I am thankful for a Prophet of God who has prepared himself all of his life for this special calling in this time and place.
The Magnificence of Man - Russell M. Nelson
Think of the most magnificent sight you have ever seen.
Now, ponder the magnificence of what you see when you look in the mirror.
Eyes are connected to the brain, ready to record sights seen.
Compacted into an area about the size of a marble is all the equipment needed to perceive sound.
The amount of work the heart does is amazing. Each day it pumps enough fluid to fill a 2,000-gallon tank. The work it performs daily is equivalent to lifting a 150-pound man to the top of the Empire State Building, while consuming only about four watts of energy—less than that used by a small light bulb in your home.
One of the most wondrous of all jewels in this treasure chest is the human brain with its intricate combination of power cells and recording, memory, storage, and retrieval systems.
Broken bones mend and become strong once again. If I were to break one of the legs of a chair, that leg would never heal itself.
In spite of wide fluctuations in the temperature of man’s environment, the body’s temperature is carefully controlled within certain narrow bounds.
How were we made? By whom? And why?
There are at least fifty-five verses of scripture that attest to our divine creation.
There are at least fifty-five verses of scripture that attest to our divine creation.
“The Gods took counsel among themselves and said: Let us go down and form man in our image, after our likeness. …
“So the Gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the image of the Gods to form they him, male and female to form they them.” (Abr. 4:26, 27.)
The Lord said that “the spirit and the body are the soul of man.” (D&C 88:15.) Therefore, each one of us is a dual being—a biological (physical) entity, and an intellectual (spiritual) entity.
When we truly know our divine nature, we will want to control our appetites. We will focus our eyes on sights, our ears on sounds, and our minds on thoughts that are a credit to our physical creation as a temple of our Father in Heaven. In daily prayer, we will gratefully acknowledge him as our Creator and thank him for the magnificence of our physical temple.
With the blessing of our bodies to assist us, we may develop spiritual qualities of honesty, integrity, compassion, and love. Only with the development of the spirit may we acquire “faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, [and] diligence.” (D&C 4:6.)
