A person's body is a temple — a divine gift that needs to be treated with great care, said Young Women General President Susan W. Tanner during the Saturday morning session of conference.

Sister Susan W. Tanner

Sister Tanner said "we shouted for joy" in the premortal realm after learning that receiving a body was a pivotal part of God's plan of happiness for His children.

"Why were we so excited?" Sister Tanner asked. "We understood eternal truths about our bodies. We knew that our bodies would be in the image of God. We knew that our bodies would house our spirits."

Joseph Smith revealed that the great principle of God's plan of happiness consists in having a body, she explained, adding that the devil has no body; that is his punishment.

Satan does understand the eternal truths about the body, Sister Tanner said. "Therefore, he tries to do everything he can to get us to abuse or misuse this precious gift. He has filled the world with lies and deceptions about the body. He tempts many to defile this great gift of the body through unchastity, immodesty, self-indulgence and addictions. He seduces some to despise their bodies; others he tempts to worship their bodies. In either case, he entices the world to regard the body merely as an object."

Jesus Christ and the scriptures declare that the body is a temple, Sister Tanner said. If everyone treated their bodies as temples, "the result would be a dramatic increase in chastity, modesty, observance of the Word of Wisdom, and a similar decrease in the problems of pornography and abuse, for we would regard the body, like the temple, as a sacred sanctuary of the Spirit."

Church members should dress and act in ways that reflect the sacred spirit inside them, said Sister Tanner. Modesty is more than simply avoiding revealing attire. It is an attitude of the heart.

Sister Tanner warned of becoming obsessed with one's outward appearance.

"Sometimes there is a selfish excess of exercising, dieting, makeovers and spending money on the latest fashions," she said. "The Lord wants us to be made in His image, not in the image of the world, by receiving His image in our countenances."

She noted that President Gordon B. Hinckley has said there is nothing more beautiful than a young woman who walks in virtue with an understanding of why she should do so, who honors and respects her body as a thing sacred and divine and who cultivates her mind and spirit.

The restored gospel teaches that there is an intimate link between body, mind and spirit. Sister Tanner said.

"Let us treat this divine gift of the body with great care," she said. "Someday, if we are worthy, we shall receive a perfected glorious body . . . inseparably bound to the spirit."