What Does It Mean To Be Whole?

“Wholeness does not necessarily mean physical and emotional restoration in this life. Wholeness is born of faith in and conversion to Jesus Christ.” President Camille N. Johnson stated this in “Spiritually Whole in Him,” her address at the April 2025 General Conference. What does it mean to be whole? Do we have control over any aspect of our wholeness? My goal is to provide answers to these questions in this post.

Definition of Whole

For this post, my definition of whole means complete, or as one definition, found in the dictionary, “in an unbroken or undamaged state; in one piece.” Based on this definition let’s look at the three areas in our lives where wholeness applies.

Three Areas of Wholeness

In life, there are three areas we can be whole: physically, mentally/emotionally, and spiritually. We strive to do our best to achieve wholeness; however, in only one area can we reach wholeness in this life.

Physically, from the time we are born until the time we die, our body ages. This aging process means that we are hardly, if ever in an undamaged state. We also have no control over our aging. We can do several things to maintain physical fitness and health, but we continue to progress towards the time when our physical body reaches its end. Thus, we can not be physically whole until after this life when we are resurrected.

I am in my 50s and, even though my brain thinks I’m in my 20s, there are things that I cannot do physically any longer. I started to realize this in my mid-20s. I was a part of a flag-football intramural squad at BYU. I was not the youngest on the team, but I had always been the fastest. I remember doing some sprints with the team and coming in third or fourth place. I was not happy about that. I began to realize that I might not be as fast as I once was. It took a long time for me to accept that I was not going to be the fastest and needed to find other ways to contribute than just running past everyone on the field.

Similarly, it is very difficult to maintain wholeness in our mental/emotional state. Again, there are factors we cannot control that lead to the degradation of our mental/emotional state. Age again claims us and, try as we might, we cannot stop the progress of time and its effect on this area. However, through the gift of resurrection, our mental/emotional state will be made whole.

I find today that I cannot remember song lyrics like I used to. Growing up, if I learned a song, I knew every lyric and intonation that the singer used. I could replicate it, as long as it was in my vocal range, because it was imprinted in my memory. Today, I hear the songs from those days and sometimes struggle with remembering the lyrics. I’m sure if I took some time to listen to the songs again and again, I would have them down.

This leaves the spiritual area of our lives. Why is this area different? One, our spiritualness is NOT affected by time. Our spiritual area does not age. The control we have over this area is as absolute as can be. We are the ones who decide where we are spiritually and what level of spiritualness we desire.

The way to be spiritually whole is in Jesus Christ. “We are whole in Jesus Christ when we exercise our agency to follow Him in faith, submit our hearts to Him so He can change them, keep His commandments, and enter a covenant relationship with Him, meekly enduring and learning from the challenges of this earthly estate until we return to His presence and are healed in every way.” President Johnson uses this definition to help us understand that we can be spiritually whole in this life. We can return to wholeness when we’ve gone off the path by returning to Him who made repentance possible.

To be spiritually whole, we need to establish a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. Recently, I have set a new goal to get on my knees right when I wake up and just before I lie down. I want to use this time to talk with God and strengthen my relationship with Him.

I don’t pray to Jesus. This means I have to do other things to build that relationship. One way I do this is by studying the Come, Follow Me lessons. Studying the Doctrine and Covenants allows me to read the words Christ revealed to Joseph Smith and other prophets. In reading the words and receiving insight because of them, I am hearing His voice and understanding who He is and how He loves me. When this happens, I desire and choose to follow Him. This in turn allows the Holy Ghost to reveal unto me more of Christ’s love.

President Johnson states, “We can choose to be made whole by exercising our faith in Him!” I mentioned Come, Follow Me above, and in section 38 of the Doctrine and Covenants we read in verses 7 and 8, “But behold, verily, verily, I say unto you that mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst and ye cannot see me; But the day soon cometh that ye shall see me, and know that I am; for the veil of darkness shall soon be rent, and he that is not purified shall not abide the day.” Faith in Jesus Christ means we trust that He is in our midst and helping us, even if we cannot see Him. That trust is a choice we make. We choose to do this with the promise that we will see Him and know that He is!

Conclusion

What does it mean to be whole? It is to be complete, in one piece, undamaged and unbroken. There are areas in our lives where we will not be whole until we have been resurrected. However, in Jesus Christ, we can be spiritually whole. This wholeness gives us hope that in the resurrection, when we are completely whole, we can gain our eternal reward of exaltation in the Kingdom of God.