Gird Up the Loins of Your Mind

In this week’s Come, Follow Me reading, we have this compelling invitation from Peter, “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).  I love that language; though we don’t use the phrase “gird up your loins” very often today, other passages in the Old Testament help us understand what it mean.  For example, when Elisha found out that the Shunammite woman’s son was in trouble, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child” (2 Kings 4:29).  In other words, he was telling him to physical tighten his pants, get himself ready, and go on a mission to this child, letting nothing distract him.  Elisha used similar language when he gave another command to “one of the children of the prophets,” telling him, “Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead” (2 Kings 9:1).  Here the command to gird up their loins was again a request to physically pull up their britches and perform the mission he was requiring of them.  Elijah similarly was led by “hand of the Lord” and so he “girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel” to save his life after the encounter with the priests of Baal (1 Kings 18:46).  He had to physically tighten his clothes and literally run to escape the wicked Jezebel. 

Other verses in the scriptures use this phrase more symbolically, such as when the Lord said to Jeremiah, “Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces” (Jeremiah 1:17).  In other words, He was telling the young prophet to rise up without fear, to stand with boldness before them to accomplish the mission the Lord had for him.  Job received similar instructions from the Lord: “Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me” (Job 38:3, 40:7).  We might paraphrase this as, “Stand up and be a man” in the same sense as Lehi’s words to Laman and Lemuel, “Arise from the dust, my sons, and be men, and be determined in one mind and in one heart” (2 Nephi 1:21).  In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord used the phrase 11 times, with most of these suggesting the need to be prepared for difficulties, to get ready for the coming of the Lord, to jump in and do the works the Lord requires.  For example, the Lord invited us to get ready for difficulties with this language: “Wherefore, lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole armor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day,” and “Therefore, gird up your loins and be faithful, and ye shall overcome all things” (Doctrine and Covenants 27:15,75:22).  Other revelations invite us to prepare for the Lord’s coming: “I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God; wherefore, gird up your loins and I will suddenly come to my temple…. Gird up your loins and be watchful and be sober, looking forth for the coming of the Son of Man, for he cometh in an hour you think not. (Doctrine and Covenants 36:8, 61:38).  From these verses and others we see that to gird up our loins we must get prepared, start moving forward with faith, stand fast in truth no matter how wicked the world around us becomes. 

Peter’s use of the phrase is the only one that speaks of girding up the loins of our minds.  So what did he mean?  One way we could read is that we should prepare ourselves for some serious learning, whether that be secular or spiritual learning.  When we go into the scriptures, for example, it might mean that we get ready to learn from the Lord; we prepare our minds to receive truth and hear His voice.  In secular learning we might gird up the loins of our minds by devoting ourselves to study and the work required to gain knowledge.  Given the context of Peter’s epistle, he might have also had a different meaning by using the phrase.  In the same chapter he spoke of “the trial of your faith” and being “tried with fire,” and in the next he wrote of the need to “endure grief, suffering wrongfully” and “suffer… patiently” (1 Peter 1:7, 2:19-20).  Peter, it seems, was preparing them for future trials and suffering, trying to help them not be surprised when difficulties arrived.  To gird up the loins of their minds may have meant to emotionally and mentally prepare for future difficulties in the same sense as Dante’s phrase, “The arrow seen before, cometh less rudely.”  The Lord had similarly explained to His disciples after prophesying of great difficulty ahead (and Peter was among them), “See that ye be not troubled, for all I have told you must come to pass” (JSM 1:23).  We can gird up the loins of our minds by knowing that the Lord is at the helm even when great difficulties come, for He has already told us they were coming.  Peter’s invitation is for all of us to prepare our minds to stand fast, to hold on to our faith, and to gird up our loins in faith as we run forward in the gospel path.