Fasting

The Lord cares about our physical health and understands our unique situations—so does an inability to skip meals necessarily equate to skipping out on the blessings of fasting?

“I was sad; the house was so beautiful, and I wanted it so badly. I was also confused. After a few days of pondering, I realized what I was missing.”

Growing up, I’d walk into the kitchen on Sundays prepared to pour myself a bowl of cereal for breakfast. But on the first Sunday of each month, I was stopped by a paper sign that was taped to the cupboard.

The Europe Area Presidency issued a letter to local leaders designating Sunday, March 2, 2022, as a day of prayer and fasting for peace.

Editor's note: "This Week from the Pulpit" highlights recent messages by General Authorities and General Officers of the Church.

It was the conclusion of the last session of April 2020 general conference and President Henry B. Eyring announced that the closing song would be a prerecorded version of “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet” by the Tabernacle Choir and six other choirs from around the world.

The following article originally ran in April 2020 is brought to you by Gospel Day by Day, a community designed to help parents lead home-centered gospel learning. You can find Gospel Day by Day on Instagram here.

During Holy Week, Christians around the world reflect on the sacred events of the Savior’s life—and this year I feel as though members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been invited to experience those important events firsthand.

By now, you have likely heard about the “Worldwide Fast April 10” Facebook group that has inspired hundreds of thousands to accept President Russell M. Nelson’s invitation to fast on Good Friday. But did you know the group was started by a Latter-day Saint missionary?

This article originally appeared on taylorhalverson.com and is republished here with permission.

I sit and watch location after location flood in:

One of the main admonitions that we try to follow as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints comes from Nephi in the Book of Mormon:

Elder Shayne M. Bowen shared 11 principles for a more meaningful fast at a devotional on Tuesday at the LDSBC in Salt Lake.

There's an excitement felt by all members when a new temple is announced. Whether these temples are built in a nearby city, state, province, or country across the world, it's exciting to see temples continue to dot the earth and bring eternal blessings to Latter-day Saint families.

My initial reaction to hearing about the social media fast was reluctant. Social media is a large part of my job, and I knew it would be impractical and difficult to stay away from it for 10 days. I soon realized that the reason I felt this was the negative commentary also appearing on my social media feeds. I hadn’t even had a chance to listen to the talk myself, yet I was allowing others to determine its effect on me. So I decided to participate — if not for the sake of obedience, then for my own sanity and mental health.

See how many problems you can spot in this personal story:

I've lived much of my life deciding whether or not people deserved my compassion. And I had a fantastic formula for deciding this: if their challenges were easier than mine, then no compassion was given on my part.

Though fasting is an import part of drawing closer to our Heavenly Father, not every Latter-day Saint is able to do so. But this doesn't mean these members can't enjoy the blessings of drawer closer Heavenly Father in other ways. Read how one LDS woman with terminal cancer finds others ways to draw strength from Heavenly Father when she cannot fast.

Take a look at 3 Nephi 24 and 25. The Lord quoted two chapters from Malachi to the Nephites so that they could be included in the Nephite scriptures for the sake of future generations:

More than 44,000 people are planning to fast on November 6, but that's not just because it's fast Sunday.

What a fun way to celebrate the commonalities between our religions. There's nothing quite like food to bring people together.

Conference Talk: For more information on this topic read "God Loves and Helps All of His Children," by Keith B. McMullin, Ensign, Nov 2008, 75-78.

In 1985, a special fast for the famine victims of Ethiopia sparked a flood of donations that far exceeded the Church’s expectations. This act of generosity by Latter-day Saints marked the beginning of what would become Latter-day Saint Charities—the Church’s humanitarian organization—which has been spreading hope and healing throughout the world ever since.

Recent riots in Baltimore have left members of the community reeling. In response to the riots, the Baltimore Stake is calling on its members and interested neighbors to fast this Sunday, May 3rd, for "peace in our city."

The Science

Fasting is a skill. But before I elaborate on that point, I would like to talk about video games for a minute.

Youth in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are building testimonies, and with more expected of LDS youth all the time, they are building them quickly. All that growing, spiritually and physically, means teenagers need to be fed—and, subsequently, fasting is hard.

When it became clear that my aunt – the Sister Missionary of this series – would not recover sufficiently from her stroke to live independently again, a cousin and I cleared out her house in preparation to sell it and its contents to support our aunt in whatever time she had left. I learned a lot about this woman I had known all my life, through sorting through her belongings – that she watched late-night television and bought too many useless wonders from pitchmen; that she had cared enough about her multitudinous church service missions to save the certificates, but not enough to keep them neatly in one place; that although she did have a vast collection of margarine tubs, she had done better than many elderly people and had not hoarded plastic bags or string or rubber bands.

When the multimillion-dollar Teton Dam disaster struck Idaho in 1976, a force of 45,000 Latter-day Saints was deployed almost overnight to provide emergency relief. When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Mormon relief trucks arrived before the National Guard was even allowing relief through. Massive oil spills in South Korea in late 2007 found hundreds of volunteers handling the disaster with plans, supplies and manpower within days. The 2010 Haitian earthquake catastrophe was met immediately with 160,000 pounds of food and emergency resources, and a month later, when a devastating earthquake hit Chile, an airlift of tents, tarps, supplies and even diapers was quickly deployed.The Church is interested in helping those in need become self-sufficient in the long term as well as meeting immediate needs. After the 2004 tsunami devastated Southeast Asia, LDS Humanitarian Services personnel were still working with community-based organizations to provide longer-term aid and development three years later.

Manual 1; Excerpt from "Stewardship - A Sacred Trust," by Quentin L. Cook

Manual 3; Supplement from "Lessons from the Lord’s Prayers" by Elder Russell M. Nelson

Supplement from "Like a Watered Garden” by Jeffrey R. Holland