FOOD FOR THE SPIRIT--Spiritual Atrophy

ATROPHY:
1. [a-troh-fee] a wasting away of the body or of an organ or part, as from defective nutrition.

2. degeneration, decline, or decrease, as from disuse.

SPIRITUAL ATROPHY:
1. A wasting away of one's life, testimony, and eternal potential, as from lack of spiritual nourishment.

2. Spiritual degenteration, decline, or decrease, as from disuse and/or spiritual apathy.


The principal of spiritual atrophy is explained in the definition above and can be simply put as such: if you don't use it, you lose it. Apathy regarding spiritual matters not only takes us further from the light and knowledge of the gospel, it deadens our hearts and weakens our ability to feel and recognize the spirit. As we become slack and "sedentary" in our spirituality, we, quite literally, risk losing our ability to "exercise" the gifts that are ours through living righteously.

For example, if we are not reading and studying our scriptures daily, we lose a portion of our right to personal revelation. We may also feel a loss of the Spirit in our day-to-day activities. Just as our muscles degenerate as we use them less and less, the Spirit dies in our hearts and minds if we do not actively exercise it and nourish it regularly.

The good news is that, unlike the body, in which such changes can become permament, spirtual atrophy can be reversed as we again begin to "work out" our spirituality. We can choose to study the gospel, attend the temple, fast, pray: all those things that keep us strong and spiritually fit. Are we as strong as we could be, spiritually? Or are our "muscles" becoming weakened by simple disuse, sins, or apathy? Hopefully, each of us will be able to set goals to ensure that this will not happen...