"And now my beloved brethren, I say unto you, can ye withstand these sayings; yea, can ye lay aside these tings, and trample the Holy One under your feet; yea, can ye be puffed up in the pride of your hearts; yea, will ye still persist in the wearing of costly apparel and setting your hearts upon the vain things of the world, upon your riches?"
I am also reading the Institute Student Manual along with it. Here is what Elder Holland has to say about this scripture:
"In terms of preoccupation with self and a fixation on the physical, this is more than social insanity; it is spiritually destructive and it accounts for much of the unhappiness in the modern world. One would truly need a great and spacious makeup kit to compete with the beauty as portrayed in media all around us."
I totally agree with Elder Holland. Alma 5:53 is more prevalent than ever today. We have to continually be on guard to not let the media influence our desires and actions too much. Otherwise, we will be caught up in the temporary happiness that the world provides.
I love Elder Holland's quote! I agree that we will never be able to live up to the ideals portrayed in media, and when we try and fail it will just lead to unhappiness. As great as the media can be, we must be careful to not let it determine our self-worth.
ReplyDeleteWow, I love what he said about having a great and spacious makeup kit to keep up with the portrayals of beauty! That's so true! Also, today in my End of Life Care class we were talking about how different cultures view death, and how we just generally have different views on things.
ReplyDeleteMy teacher shared a story of this beautiful girl who was a BYU student from Tonga and never really had guys at BYU think that she was anything especially pretty, so she got the mindset that she wasn't particularly pretty. Then she went to Africa on a study abroad with my teacher, and all of the sudden she was getting noticed by all of the African males. She thought at first that the men were making fun of her by "pretending" to think she was so pretty, but by the time she left Africa she had come to realize that to them she was truly beautiful.
I just found that story really fascinating, and it made me think of how we come to believe things about ourselves according to how the people around us treat us. Like the case of Johnny Lingo and Mahanna - she wasn't ugly!
Anyway, thanks again for this post! I loved the connection between the scripture and what Elder Holland said.
I think Elder Holland's word choice is so interesting when he says that it is "more than social insanity." It really is insane how media can make us feel so insecure and like there is always something about us that we need to fix; if it's not our hair then it's our clothes or our body. It is sad how it can make us feel like we are not good enough. It is cheesy, but true, that real beauty is found on a deeper level.
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