Doctor for your soul

When we get physically sick, we typically turn to modern medicine to fix our body. We may go to a doctor for a diagnosis of our ailment and a recommendation for a cure to be healed. Modern medicine can perform modern miracles to fix our ailing bodies and return us back to physical health. If we have a spiritual ailment and need help healing our spirit, where can we turn? There isn’t a hospital or an after-hours clinic we can go and visit when we are facing a spiritual ailment. There isn’t a pill we can take to return us back to spiritual health. So where do we turn for help?

Primary Answers – Scriptures, Prayer, and the Temple

If you have ever attended a Sunday school lesson, you know that the most frequent answer given to fix any spiritual ailment is to turn to the scriptures, prayer, and the temple. Why is this the most frequent answer? Because, it usually works. When you have a headache, you do not go to the doctor to ask if there are any new or different medications to fix your headache.

You go to the medicine cabinet, pull out the Excedrin or Aspirin, take a couple pills, and wait for the medication to take your headache away. Why? Because you know that Excedrin or Aspirin works great at taking your headache away and there is no need to seek out other medication. The same principle applies to turning to the scriptures, prayer, and the temple when facing spiritual ailments. The principles of scripture reading, prayer, and temple attendance may often be the cure for our spiritual ailments.

When Scriptures, Prayer, and the Temple are not enough

Just as Excedrin and Aspirin do not fix every physical ailment, sometimes in addition to scripture reading, prayer, and temple attendance, you need some additional spiritual medication to cure your spiritual ailment.

Turning to your family

Sometimes, the best cure is talking about your spiritual ailment with someone who cares about you. If you are married, your spouse is a great person who loves and cares about you and will be there to help provide spiritual medication. If you are not married, parents, siblings, or grandparents are also people who care for you and will offer spiritual medication. These people can provide a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, a sounding board, some sage advice, or whatever else you may be in need of. They can pull from their personal experience to offer you help when you are struggling.

Turning to your church family

Sometimes, we are not able to turn to our family for our spiritual medication. Our family may be non-members, our spouse may be struggling as well, we may feel uncomfortable or embarrassed, or any number of other reasons. In this case, our church family is also there to provide us with spiritual medication. We can turn to our visiting teach or home teacher to heal our spiritual ailments. The old and worn out phrase spoken by every visiting teacher and home teacher of “let us know if there is anything we can help with,” while worn out, still holds true. They are there to help. We are each assigned to visit other families in the ward to make sure they are spiritually taken care of. When we face spiritual ailments, visiting teachers and home teachers can be there to aid us in our struggles.

The bishop is also the spiritual doctor of the ward. The bishop is called to administer to the people, members and non-members, within the ward boundaries. Part of what the bishop administers is spiritual medication for spiritual ailments. The bishop can call down the powers of heaven as he administers to those he is called to watch over.

Priesthood Blessings

As part of the spiritual medication that your immediate family or church family may provide, a priesthood blessing can be a great way to call down the powers of heaven and heal your spiritual ailment. The priesthood holder stands in the place of our Heavenly Father and provides guidance and direction on behalf of our Heavenly Father. We can learn our Heavenly Father’s will on the matter and receive direction on an issue we may be facing.

Just as we seek out physical healers for physical ailments, we should also seek out spiritual healers for spiritual ailments. Russell M. Nelson, a world renown physical healer, gives the perfect direction for spiritual healing when he said, “Faith, repentance, baptism, a testimony, and enduring conversion lead to the healing power of the Lord…The gift of resurrection is the Lord’s consummate act of healing… Thanks to Him, no condition is hopeless. Thanks to Him, brighter days are ahead, both here and hereafter.” If you are facing a spiritual ailment, please seek out spiritual healing. If you are spiritually healthy, please seek out and help those who are facing spiritual ailments. Everyone is healthy at times and sick at other times. If we seek to help others when needed and seek help when we are in need, we will all be able to return back to our Heavenly Father together spiritually healthy.