Find the Divinity Within

"Instead of embarking on a more meaningful quest [women] have placed their faith in products and images. Rather than loving their bodies, and being peaceful, respectful, and gentle with them, women have attacked, manipulated, and controlled their physical selves, never feeling satisfied or content.”- Margo Maine, PhD. (“Body Wars,” p. 10)

“So many of our sisters are disheartened, even discouraged, and disillusioned. . . Satan has unleashed a seductive campaign to undermine the sanctity of womanhood, to deceive the daughters of God and to divert them from their divine destiny. He well knows women are the compassionate, self-sacrificing, loving power that binds together the human family. He would focus their interests solely on their physical attributes and rob them of their exalting roles as wives and mothers. He has convinced many of the lie that they are third class citizens in the kingdom of God.”- Elder Richard G. Scott (Ensign, May 2000, p. 36)

“What a clever and seductive plan, what a way to distract us and keep us from understanding the influence we have and what we can effect in the lives of others if we are so distracted and overwhelmed with what a clothing, diet, and entertainment industry say we need to look like. These pursuits can take up not only an immense amount of time but an inordinate amount of energy and can totally consume us, our lives, and this precious probationary period which we have been allotted.”- President James E. Faust (Ensign, Nov. 1999)

• Girls who diet frequently are 12 times as likely to binge as girls who don’t diet (Neumark-Sztainer, 2005).
• 75% of American women are dissatisfied with their appearance
• Over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives (Neumark-Sztainer, 2005).
• 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner (Collins, 1991).
• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat (Mellin et al., 1991).
• The average American woman is 5’4” tall and weighs 140 pounds. The average American model is 5’11” tall and weighs 117 pounds.
• Most fashion models are thinner than 98% of American women (Smolak, 1996).
• One-third of all American women wear a size 16 or larger.
• 46% of 9-11 year-olds are “sometimes” or “very often” on diets, and 82% of their families are “sometimes” or “very often” on diets (Gustafson-Larson & Terry, 1992).
• 91% of women recently surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting, 22% dieted “often” or “always” (Kurth et al., 1995).
• 95% of all dieters will regain their lost weight in 1-5 years (Grodstein, et al., 1996).
• 35% of “normal dieters” progress to pathological dieting. Of those, 20-25% progress to partial or full-syndrome eating disorders (Shisslak & Crago, 1995).
• 25% of American men and 45% of American women are on a diet on any given day (Smolak, 1996).
• Americans spend over $40 billion on dieting and diet-related products each year (Smolak, 1996).
• Young girls are more afraid of becoming fat than they are of nuclear war, cancer, or losing their parents.

"There is something of divinity within each of you. You have such tremendous potential with that quality as a part of your inherited nature. Every one of you was endowed by your Father in Heaven with a tremendous capacity to do good in the world. Train your minds and your hands that you may be equipped to serve well in the society of which you are a part. Cultivate the art of being kind, of being thoughtful, of being helpful. Refine within you the quality of mercy which comes as a part of the divine attributes you have inherited.
Some of you may feel that you are not as attractive and beautiful and glamorous as you would like to be. Rise above any such feelings, cultivate the light you have within you, and it will shine through as a radiant expression that will be seen by others. You need never feel inferior. In summary, try a little harder to measure up to the divine within each of you. As Alma said, “Awake and arouse your faculties” (Alma 32:27)."- Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Light within You,” Ensign, May 1995, 99