Girding Our Loins With Truth
by Eden
The other Sunday in sacrament meeting, a young man got up and spoke about putting on the armor of God. He quoted Ephesians 6, and stuttered a little over the phrase “having your loins girt about with truth.” Which is understandable…the phrase conjures up bizarre images of something between a loin-cloth and a dance belt, with a big capital letter “TRUTH” written across it. And as a teenage Latter-day Saint male, thinking about loins at all is borderline taboo, so it makes sense that he would stumble a little when mentioning it from the pulpit.
But as I sat there, thinking about that armor-of-God imagery, it occurred to me that perhaps truth is what we need to surround our loins with. The scriptures in Ephesians specify which principles go with which piece of armor—the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith. Perhaps it’s no accident that TRUTH is what protects our loins—our sexual organs.
There are so many messages being sent to us about our bodies, but especially the sexual parts of us. Our vaginas should be shaved, our vaginas shouldn’t be shaved, our vaginas are sacred, our vaginas are unsanitary. Our vaginas should be smoking hot, our vaginas shouldn’t be touched. With all the chatter regarding our bodies, it makes sense to protect ourselves with capital letter TRUTH.
Because the truth is that our vaginas have the ability to carry decades of shame and the ability to create universes of joy. The truth is that the vagina is sacred, but not shameful. The truth is that our vaginal experiences can unite us as women. The truth is that God created the vagina—all parts of it, including the clitoris, the ONLY part of the human body created specifically for pleasure and pleasure alone. Our worth as women does not depend upon the quality and usage of our vaginas.
THOSE things are truths to gird our loins with.
But as I sat there, thinking about that armor-of-God imagery, it occurred to me that perhaps truth is what we need to surround our loins with. The scriptures in Ephesians specify which principles go with which piece of armor—the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith. Perhaps it’s no accident that TRUTH is what protects our loins—our sexual organs.
There are so many messages being sent to us about our bodies, but especially the sexual parts of us. Our vaginas should be shaved, our vaginas shouldn’t be shaved, our vaginas are sacred, our vaginas are unsanitary. Our vaginas should be smoking hot, our vaginas shouldn’t be touched. With all the chatter regarding our bodies, it makes sense to protect ourselves with capital letter TRUTH.
Because the truth is that our vaginas have the ability to carry decades of shame and the ability to create universes of joy. The truth is that the vagina is sacred, but not shameful. The truth is that our vaginal experiences can unite us as women. The truth is that God created the vagina—all parts of it, including the clitoris, the ONLY part of the human body created specifically for pleasure and pleasure alone. Our worth as women does not depend upon the quality and usage of our vaginas.
THOSE things are truths to gird our loins with.
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