"The Lord sets a high standard for us in telling us to consider our bodies a temple. I have had the privilege of accompanying the President of the Church to many temple dedications. Before a dedicatory service the President always wants to inspect the workmanship of the new temple, which is of the highest quality and beautiful in its design. The grounds around our temples are always the most attractive place in the communities in which they are constructed."
(photo by Abby Alger Photography)
It got me to thinking... when people think about their bodies being a temple, they focus a lot on keeping it holy by keeping things OUT. They don't drink alcohol or coffee, they don't get tattoos, and they don't allow inappropriate touching from other people. And this is all fantastic.
But when you go to a temple, what do you notice: all the bad things that aren't there OR the BEAUTY that is there? We rarely walk around the Salt Lake Temple grounds and comment on the lack of weeds, no, we comment on the beautiful flowers and trees.
How does this relate to us and this blog? Well I don't believe God intended us to be frumpy and grungy. I don't believe he wants us to give so much to others that we neglect ourselves. I believe that he wants us to look and feel our best so that we can better serve others. If we are to truly treat our bodies as temples we would take the time to beautify them.
The effort put into the upkeep of our beautiful temples does not take away from the efforts the church makes to spread the gospel.
Related...
I was listening to a parenting book (to prepare me for my preschool internship) this morning and it goes through some mistakes parents make a lot. One of them I found rather interesting- Too many parents are too selfless for their children. They ALWAYS put their children first and their own needs second. They take their child to a movie despite extreme fatigue, they go out and buy new ingredients for a requested meal that wasn't planned for, or they are late to their own meetings so their child won't be too early to school. So what do children learn? To ALWAYS put others first. So when they get into middle school they have low self esteem and parents don't know why. They say "I did everything I could! I always put them first!" Well that's their problem. They child thinks that "self" does not matter and that we must always think of others, never ourselves.
At Be the Best You! camp, their biggest focus is on service. The girls do a big service project every day. But they learn how to take care of themselves. They teach them to "spend time getting ready and taking care of yourself then as soon as you step out the door, forget about yourself and serve everyone."
So go ahead- buy some makeup! Spend time curling your hair! Don't feel guilty for taking time for yourself, in fact, schedule time for yourself!
(and really with all the discounts I'm offering you on high quality make-up... there's no reason NOT to make yourself beautiful. If you don't know where to start, schedule a facial with me and earn even MORE free product!! Leave a comment and I'll get in contact with you!)
So what's the purpose of beautiful temples? I think that's key to your analogy. I would suspect it has to do with glorifying and honoring God. Can that be a reason for putting on make-up? It's my guess that most people put it on to honor self.
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