Health in the Navel

This lesson is built on Sister J. Anette Dennis’s April 2024 general conference address, “Put Ye On the Lord Jesus Christ,” with help from teachings I have learned from Bryce Dunford—a longtime seminary and institute teacher, now at the University of Utah Institute, and co-host of the Talking Scripture podcast.

Opening question: What are the greatest violations of the Word of Wisdom?

Keep that in mind as we discuss. We will come back to it.

Hesed, Covenant, Atonement

Sister Dennis teaches that when we choose to make covenants with God, our relationship with Him can become much closer than it was before, and it enables Him to bless us with an extra measure of His mercy and love—a covenantal love referred to in Hebrew as hesed.

President Russell M. Nelson has taught that when we choose to make covenants with God, our relationship with Him can become much closer than it was before our covenant, and it enables Him to bless us with an extra measure of His mercy and love, a covenantal love referred to as hesed in the Hebrew language. The covenant path is all about our relationship with God—our hesed relationship with Him.¹

Hesed is a Hebrew word that means kindness or love between persons: the devoted piety of people toward God, and the love or mercy of God toward humanity. It goes both ways.

What does that make you think of? Ordinances and covenants? Service? Parenthood?

Health in the Navel

I have had babies on the brain recently for obvious reasons.

My son Donovan was due in August, but would be born two months early in June, about a month after this discussion.

A baby’s umbilical cord flows both ways. That idea has stuck out to me recently whenever I hear or read the phrase “health in the navel.”

Why is the navel important?

Scripture keeps putting life, spirit, and mercy in the middle of the body, not only in the head. “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”² “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.”³ Joseph’s “bowels did yearn upon his brother.”⁴ Paul tells us to put on “bowels of mercies.”⁵

On my mission in the Yucatán, I heard from the locals that they believed the ancient Aztec human sacrifices were corruptions of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. When Christ came to the Americas, He taught the people to do away with the blood sacrifices of animals, and instead offer a broken heart and a contrite spirit.⁶ As time went on and the teachings were corrupted, the Aztecs began offering blood sacrifices again, and in their sacrilegious perversion would cut out a person’s intestines first (a contrite spirit), then cut out the heart (a broken heart) and offer it to the sun god. I don’t know if this is accurate, but this was what the locals told us they believed. In any case, it provides another picture of the spirit being believed to reside in one’s bowels.

The Science of the Brain-Gut Connection

Science has a name for part of this. Researchers call the gut a “second brain”: the enteric nervous system. Johns Hopkins Medicine describes it this way:

Unlike the big brain in your skull, the ENS can’t balance your checkbook or compose a love note. Its main role is controlling digestion, from swallowing to the release of enzymes that break down food to the control of blood flow that helps with nutrient absorption to elimination. The enteric nervous system doesn’t seem capable of thought as we know it, but it communicates back and forth with our big brain—with profound results.⁷

The ENS may trigger big emotional shifts experienced by people coping with certain intestinal issues. For decades, researchers and doctors thought that anxiety and depression contributed to these problems. But our studies and others show that it may also be the other way around. Researchers are finding evidence that irritation in the gastrointestinal system may send signals to the central nervous system that trigger mood changes.

These findings may explain why a higher-than-normal percentage of people with bowel problems develop depression and anxiety. That’s important data, because up to 30% to 40% of the population has functional bowel problems at some point.⁷

That is likely why we talk about a “gut feeling,” and why we tell people to trust their gut. Be aware of what you feed it.

Where else do we hear the phrase “health in the navel”?

A Principle with a Promise

Section 89. The Word of Wisdom is given “for a principle with promise.”⁸ The principle is given first. The promise begins in verse 18:

And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones; and shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; and shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint. And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them.⁹

Proverbs says the same thing in both directions:

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.¹⁰

Jesus told Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”¹¹ Adam was carried into the water, born of the Spirit, and became a son of God.¹²

Baptism, hesed, rebirth: the Atonement flows both ways.

A Spiritual Umbilical

A baby is totally dependent. It cannot do anything for itself. How is that like us with Christ and the Atonement?

We have a spiritual umbilical through which we are spiritually fed. Our bodies are the instruments of the spirit. The Word of Wisdom guides us to take care of the physical body, and thereby increase the potential flow of spiritual nutrients.

With that in mind, what are the greatest violations of the Word of Wisdom?

Probably more often than not, we think of coffee, alcohol, and drugs. But what about not sleeping enough, not feeding the body the right fuels? What about not taking enough care to let the body serve spiritual flow instead of spending all its strength just keeping itself upright? It is hard to feel the Spirit if I am tired, or hungry, or feel gross.

If the umbilical cord of a baby goes both ways, what does the mother get out of it? What does Christ get out of the Atonement?

It Flows Both Ways

The umbilical cord in a human pregnancy flows two directions. Not only from mother to baby, but the other way as well. When a woman is pregnant, cells of the baby migrate into the mother’s bloodstream, then cycle back into the baby. The phenomenon is called fetal-maternal microchimerism. For those weeks the cells circulate and merge backward and forward, and after the baby is born many of these cells remain in the mother’s body, leaving a permanent imprint in her tissues. Even if a pregnancy does not go full term, some of those cells can remain. Research has suggested that if a mother’s heart is injured, fetal cells can move toward the site of injury and help in repair. The baby helps repair the mother while the mother builds the baby.

Isaiah says of the suffering servant that “he shall see his seed.”¹³ We can read that to mean: while He is suffering, He shall see His people. What got Christ through His agony is you. Watching the impact of His eternal sacrifice on your life gets Him through the darkness. Just as the mother and the baby help each other, we need Christ. And perhaps Christ also needed us to get through His darkness. That is the relationship we have with Him.

An excellent quote from a book I really enjoyed illustrates this. A Catholic priest is in China working to spread the gospel. At one point, he kneels to pray with a penitent:

So he knelt beside her and gazed, without praying, into the pure and peaceful night where, across the ages, among the shadows of a garden, another poor and common man also knelt and watched them both.

A. J. Cronin, The Keys of the Kingdom

What is the trade?

We do it for our children. He did it for us. He needed us too, the way we need our children.

And again, verily I say unto you, my friends, I leave these sayings with you to ponder in your hearts, with this commandment which I give unto you, that ye shall call upon me while I am near—Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.¹⁴

Everything Points to Christ

Sister Dennis says this about the house of the Lord:

As we make covenants with God in the house of the Lord, we further deepen our relationship with Him. Everything we do in the temple points to our Father’s plan for us, at the heart of which is the Savior and His atoning sacrifice.¹⁵

How do we help ourselves remember and stay focused on these covenants and promises?

The Garment

One answer is the garment of the holy priesthood.

As part of the temple endowment, we are authorized to wear the garment of the holy priesthood. It is both a sacred obligation and a sacred privilege.¹⁶

In the temple recommend interview, endowed members are asked whether they keep the covenants they made in the temple, and whether they honor the sacred privilege to wear the garment as instructed. The interviewer then reads this statement from the First Presidency:

The garment of the holy priesthood reminds us of the veil in the temple, and that veil is symbolic of Jesus Christ. When you put on your garment, you put on a sacred symbol of Jesus Christ. Wearing it is an outward expression of your inner commitment to follow Him. The garment is also a reminder of your temple covenants. You should wear the garment day and night throughout your life. When it must be removed for activities that cannot reasonably be done while wearing the garment, seek to restore it as soon as possible. As you keep your covenants, including the sacred privilege to wear the garment as instructed in the initiatory ordinances, you will have greater access to the Savior’s mercy, protection, strength, and power.¹⁷

Why is the symbolism essential to understand? Do temple garments add power to our lives?

Not as magic cloth. As a covenant sign. Sister Dennis says that as we put on the garment each day, that symbol becomes part of us. We have symbolically put on Christ, who Himself is an armor of light.

Our temple garment reminds us that the Savior and the blessings of His Atonement cover us throughout our lives. As we put on the garment of the holy priesthood each day, that beautiful symbol becomes a part of us.¹⁸

I believe that my willingness to wear the holy garment becomes my symbol to Him. It is my own personal sign to God, not a sign to others.¹⁹

Were there ideas or phrases that stood out to you from Sister Dennis?

Spirit over Body

Sister Dennis points us to the words of President Nelson. Long before he was President of the Church, Elder Russell M. Nelson taught a doctrine that belongs with “health in the navel.” He called it self-mastery: not mind over matter, but spirit over body.

Before you can master yourself, my precious one, you need to know who you are. You consist of two parts—your physical body, and your spirit which lives within your body. You may have heard the expression “mind over matter.” That’s what I would like to talk about—but phrase it a little differently: “spirit over body.” That is self-mastery.²⁰

That is the Word of Wisdom from the other side of the cord. We care for the body so the spirit can breathe. We keep the covenant so the Savior can cover us. We draw near, and He draws near.

I know that Jesus Christ is the center of every covenant we make. Hesed goes both ways. The Atonement flows both ways. If we will put Him on—in ordinance, in appetite, in the garment, in the quiet middle of us—He will put His life into us.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.