Skye Fagrell is a Bishop, seminary teacher, and the author of “More Fit 4 The Kingdom”. He received a bachelor’s in Visual Arts and a minor in Coaching & Teaching Physical Education from Brigham Young University and completed his master’s in Educational Leadership at Northern Arizona University. He’s taught seminary for over 18 years and is an online professor for BYU-Idaho. He’s the CEO of More Fit 4 Life, providing leadership and culture consulting. He recently published his first book, “More Fit 4 The Kingdom”, outlining how proven principles of physical fitness can be applied in gaining intellectual, spiritual, and social strength. He and his wife, Jacque, have four children. They’ve been married over 19 years. He is currently serving as the bishop of his ward.

Enter Skye…

With the new year and the new “Children and Youth” program of the Church, many are asking themselves, “How do I become more fit?” Judging by the traffic on social media platforms, it’s seems many in our communities have a renewed focus on personal improvement in 2020! While the Church-wide emphasis on the four factors involved in the programs is new, the factors themselves and their importance to our overall fitness isn’t. Nearly 60 years ago, Elder Ezra Taft Benson taught:

“It seems to me that the most successful program of complete youth fitness ever known to man was described in fourteen words: ‘And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.’ There is the ideal of any program of youth fitness, to help our youth increase in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man” (Benson, 1960; Luke 2:52).

Thus, while the goals that individuals and families set will differ, the need to increase in strength is the same for us all. Now is the time to become and remain strong. The strength we had in the past, and what we did to gain it, won’t be enough to successfully navigate the future. We need to renew our covenants, keep them, and learn to obey with exactness (Alma 57:21). This will require adjustments in our actions and behaviors, but that’s how improvement is made; looking for small changes in things we do often (Eyring, 2001).

Focusing on All 4 Areas of Fitness

I’ve seen the power of focusing on these four areas of fitness during my service as Bishop. Youth and adults who come to confess a spiritual ailment and focus their improvement only on that one issue are far less likely to overcome their weakness than those who focus on their overall fitness in the four areas outlined in Luke 2:52. For example, I’ve met with numerous individuals who’ve struggled with pornography. My experience has been that individuals who work only on fortifying themselves against that temptation can have success, but not near as much as those who simultaneously seek to increase their fitness in the other areas modeled by the Savior.

Without question, the most successful individuals I’ve worked with have identified and set goals to improve not only spiritually, but intellectually, physically, and socially, as well. When individuals and families who are struggling with a spiritual ailment start accomplishing goals in all of the other areas of fitness (which are often more easily measurable than the spiritual one they initially sought my assistance for), they become increasingly motivated to continue the process of repentance. I’ve termed this process of becoming “More Fit 4 the Kingdom.” Not only is this title a reminder from hymn #131 that we all need more holiness, but of the balanced approach to growth in the four areas of fitness that we all need as well.

An Example – “John and Sally”

Let me illustrate an example of this relationship by sharing a composite of multiple experiences I’ve had as Bishop. A couple in my ward—let’s call them “John and Sally”—shared with me some of the struggles that they were having. They’d been going on for years and were serious. Like most marriages, there were problems and like most problems in marriage, they both shared the blame. They didn’t know what to do and were at a crossroads. They had been to professional marriage counseling and were willing to continue. But they were frustrated with the lack of noticeable difference their efforts to change and improve their marriage had seemed to make. They were humbly seeking help from both professional and ecclesiastical leaders. While I knew I didn’t know how to fix their problems, I was confident the Lord did. They wanted to save their marriage and were willing to work on it. Miracles happen when those factors combine.

Whenever I’m in situations like this, I try to help the couple identify aspects of the four areas of fitness they can strive to strengthen individually, outside of the obvious area they’ve come to see me about. So, in my mind I think, “Jesus grew in wisdom (intellectual/professional) and stature (physical), and in favor with God (spiritual) and man (social); how can I assist John and Sally in each area?” I then ask questions to help assess where they currently are in these four areas. After carefully listening, my assessment of John might be something like this:

• Intellectually / Professionally = He’s working hard and doing all he can to further his career and provide for his family.
• Physically = He’s not happy with his fitness. The discouragement he feels from his marriage and stress from work have led to long lapses in exercise.
• Spiritually = Seems like John is making a genuine effort, but he needs more frequency and follow-up.
• Socially = He and Sally are meeting with a solid marriage counselor and are working hard to implement his instruction.

Going through a process like this enables the individual to identify strengths and weakness while also helping me identify where I can be of most help. Sometimes as a result of the interview, I feel impressed to get some mentors involved. If so, in a case like this, I’d let John know that I think mentors could be a great asset to him and ask his help in identifying men he’d feel comfortable including in his circle and for his permission to reach out to them. If he’d agree, I’d invite one to become a “spiritual mentor,” and another to become his “physical mentor.” I’d ask these men to contact John regularly, help him set some goals, offer training and support, and follow-up as frequently as possible. Of course, I’d go through the same process with Sally.

I’ve always been impressed with the inspired plans these “Johns and Sallys” and their mentors come up with. In some cases, I’ve found individuals and their mentors selecting a church program like Preach My Gospel as a spiritual strength training program. In others, I’ve seen them going to the temple together on a monthly basis. Some just call daily and share a scripture together. Some mentors are out in the neighborhood, jogging with their mentee or meeting at the gym. I’ve learned that they’re eating better, tracking their steps, or have adopted a “water consumption” goal together. The programs vary as needs are adapted to individuals, but the result is the same: They gain strength. They grow closer to the Lord. They grow closer as a couple. They gain lifelong friends in their mentors and expand the circle of people they can count on. Most importantly, they learn the goal setting techniques necessary to continue gaining the strength they need to withstand the temptations they’ll continue to face.

Applying True Principles

There are at least a few reasons why increasing fitness levels in all areas of fitness assist in the spiritual area people are initially struggling with. First, “true principles apply in a wide variety of circumstances” (Scott, 1993). For example, while most feel that gaining physical strength is challenging, they have no problem with the idea of planning, tracking, and measuring their efforts to attain it. Yet when asked to plan, track, and measure their intellectual, spiritual, or social efforts, most are skeptical that such an approach is applicable to such “unquantifiable” pursuits. They are especially skeptical in regard to their spiritual improvement efforts. Unfortunately, this is a major misconception and one of the main reasons so many people become stagnant in their overall development. Tony Horton, creator of the popular P90X workout program, said it this way:

“There’s no doubt that taking care of yourself physically can help you with almost any purpose. When you feel better, you accomplish more – and that’s not just some motto I got from a bumper sticker. A recent study out of Brigham Young University shows that people with poor diets suffered a 66 percent loss of workplace productivity. The numbers don’t lie: Taking care of yourself enables you to be more productive – and that means you’ll get more out of life” (Horton, 2014).

Simply put, if a principle works in the weight room to stimulate muscle growth and strength, it also works in the family room to stimulate spiritual growth and strength. By extension, it will also work in our intellectual and social arenas.

Second, a repentant sinner (an individual or family seeking spiritual improvement) gains confidence in the process of their spiritual development as they see it in their physical development. It’s much like the lesson Alma taught the Zoramites. Using a physical example to teach a spiritual concept, Alma compared a seed to the process of strengthening faith:

“…if you give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed… it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves – it must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good… And now, behold, will not this strengthen your faith? Yea, it will strengthen your faith: for ye will say I know that this is a good seed; for behold it sprouteth and beginneth to grow” (Alma 32:28,30).

Seeing the fruits of their labors in a physical way, the seeker of spiritual improvement is inclined to continue applying the same principle in their spiritual life. The motivation of weight loss, increased strength, and improved physical appearance drives their enthusiasm to continue their spiritual exercises, not only aiding them in their efforts to gain a new shape, but to become a “new creature” in Christ (Mosiah 27:24-26).

Third, the individual or family seeking spiritual improvement eventually will no longer need to look anywhere else for evidence that the spiritual process they are engaged in will bring forth good fruit. Having walked the path, held the rod, and managed their way through the mists of darkness, they’ve partaken of the fruit for themselves. They’ve discovered that the fruit at the end of the covenant path is “sweet” above all that they have ever tasted and want its joy and happiness for themselves and others (1 Nephi 8:10-12). As a result of their reliance on the teachings and Atonement of Jesus Christ, they feel the explosive power of God’s redeeming love, His grace both compelling and enabling them to change (Alma 5:9-14).

Thus, our efforts at improvement in any one area of fitness are enhanced as we focus on improvement in all four areas of fitness. In short, our efforts become more effective because we can see and feel that “it’s working!”

Becoming More Fit 4 the Kingdom

This is the answer to the question posed earlier, “How do I become more fit?” Simply put, we follow the Savior. We gain the spiritual strength the Savior emphasized by following the training program the Savior utilized. Like physical strength, spiritual fitness comes only at the price of dedication, perseverance, and self-discipline. Just as increased physical fitness enables us to accomplish feats we were once incapable of, these same principles will enable us to gain the spiritual strength necessary to stand strong in the face of the same temptations that once took us down. Like the Stripling Warriors (Alma 57:25-26), we can gain the spiritual strength necessary to become invincible!

Verse 3. More purity give me, More strength to o’ercome, More freedom from earth-stains, More longing for home. More fit for the kingdom, More used would I be, More blessed and holy— More, Savior, like thee. (Church, 2002, #131)

Sources:

Benson, So Shall Ye Reap, 1960, p.140

Eyring, Raising Our Sights, Church Educational System, 14 Aug 2001

Horton, The Big Picture: 11 Laws That Will Change Your Life, Harper Collins, 2014

Scott, Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge, General Conference, Oct. 1993 The content of this article comes from the book More Fit 4 The Kingdom: Gain the Strength the Savior Emphasized By Following The Training Program He Utilized.