The Word of Wisdom

For this month's spiritual thought, I'd like to touch on my church's Word of Wisdom. Looking back, I'm surprised I hadn't broached this subject, as by far, it is the answer to the most popular questions I receive from people who are not members of my church.

I don't know how many times I've heard the following ...

Is it true that you're not allowed to drink coffee?

You can't even have a little wine?

Can you drink Coke?

But you can drink hot chocolate? Doesn't it also have caffeine?

Isn't the Church using these rules to control you?

Well -- here we go...

Perhaps one of the best ways to understand this counsel is to read it from the source: D&C 89. (Which was part of our weekly reading a couple of weeks ago.)

To summarize, this revelation received by the Lord, states the following:

• An introduction -- not a commandment, even the weak can follow.
• Avoid the following -- alcohol, tobacco, hot drinks (coffee and tea).
• Consume the following -- wholesome herbs, meat (sparingly), grain, fruit.
• Promises -- health, wisdom, treasures of knowledge, no weariness, destroying angel will pass by.

One thing to realize is that initially, this was not a commandment. It was given as advice. Do this, and you will get these blessings. Immediately after the revelation was received, many of brethren threw out their pipes and tobacco. However, there were some reports that some still continued some of the alcohol and perhaps some tobacco, even including Joseph Smith, himself, but not so much in excess.

It was only later that it was adopted as more of a commandment. Today, if you do not follow the Word of Wisdom, it is difficult to have your temple recommend renewed, which means you can't enter the temples.

Also, many don't realize that the Word of Wisdom also contains the section on eating healthy, which is as important, if not more important than the avoidance list. And if you think about it, wouldn't it make sense? If you eat healthy, then you'll actually ... be ... healthy?

It is only when you consider the whole of the entire revelation that one can see the sense of it all. When I'm barraged by all the nit-picky questions (doesn't chocolate have caffeine in it?), I try to explain how they're looking at the trees in the forest. The guidance wasn't meant to be a list of specifics -- only general guidelines.

Overall, I do feel the blessings of following the guidance. The outcome seems worth following the guidance. 

A funny story from my past ... when I was a teenager, a neighbor came over to my house, challenging me to a race. This other teenager was someone known to smoke, and also possibly did drugs. He was stronger than me, and just wanted to be a jerk -- wanted to show that he could run faster. So, we raced, and I won handily. He said, "No way. This is because you're a Mormon, isn't it? You have that Word of Wisdom thing." Yeah -- this really happened.

It's not that I'm a fast runner, and I still get weary. (I may not be the most healthy eater.) But there do exist people -- even those who are not of my church, who inadvertently follow the Word of Wisdom better than I do. So, anyone can follow and benefit. Good things make you healthy. Bad things make you unhealthy.

Finally -- I pointed this out in a recent testimony. With the coronavirus pandemic, most of the people who have died have done so with underlying comorbidities. In other words, if you catch the virus, and if you're already unhealthy, you have a smaller chance of being able to fight the infection, and you have a greater chance of dying.

When you look at each of the 50 US states, there's one state that stands out. Members of my church out west (bless their hearts) are notorious for not avoiding the coronavirus. At the time I bore my testimony a few weeks ago, Utah was in the top 5 states of the most cases per capita. Due to the Delta outbreak, Utah has now fallen to 10th place, with some southern states overcoming it.

But when you look at deaths per capita, Utah comes in at the bottom 5. And when you divide official deaths by official cases, Utah comes in with the 2nd lowest observed death rate. So, even though Utah did terribly in controlling the pandemic, they did have an amazingly low death rate -- evidence that the Word of Wisdom has helped many of my church members to weather this storm and survive. 

So -- Word of Wisdom -- perhaps you should check it out. Be healthy and prosper.