Our human bodies are marvels of creation. We are divinely crafted specimens, whose intricate functionality surpasses even the most advanced of machinery. Every part of us moves in beautiful synchronicity to enable us to live out our lives as best as we are able. And flowing through our impressive vessels are hormones, perhaps one of our greatest gifts from G-d.

Hormones? Are we seriously talking about those things which caused our faces to turn into bumpy messes as teens, and turns us into irrational rage machines about three quarters of every month? What’s so great about hormones?

If you stop and think about some of the greatest moments in your life — the moment you first fell in love with your spouse, your wedding day, the birth of your first child — almost every one of them can be attributed to hormones, those strange chemicals in our bodies which make us who we are and influence so many of our decisions.

Hormones stirred up those indescribable feelings when we first met our partners. They fueled our attraction and made us believe this was the person with whom we should start a family. Hormones caused us to toss aside our “check lists” for the “perfect man” and helped us see that the right person isn’t always what we expected. We may call it, “love,” but behind those butterflies and tingly sensations are hormones surging through our bodies, telling us we have found our “person.”

Hormones are what whisper in our heads to create life. They smack down all logic, which tells us having a baby means lots of hard work, the end of life as we once knew it, and a huge financial burden. Hormones take the smell of a newborn’s head and turns it into ache and longing in our wombs. And, when we’ve already had one child, hormones convince us, no matter how topsy turvy our lives already are, that another baby would mean more love, more joy and more wonder.

Hormones remind us, that even after five, ten or twenty years of marriage, there is nobody else who makes our hearts race and fills our bodies with passion. They may wane over the years, and our desires might not always be what they once were, but those glorious hormones still pulsate through our blood, ready to reignite the spark of our partnerships.

Hormones push us to make those seemingly illogical decisions, which so often turn out to be the best things that ever happen in our lives. They are a gift from a higher power, who knows what we need in our lives better than we do.

Even in our tougher times, hormones are there to guide us. They are how our bodies signal our brains that something isn’t quite right. When the days, weeks and months after birth leave many of us downtrodden, terrified and distraught, our hormones call out like a megaphone shouting, “get help, you don’t have to do this alone!”

I can’t speak to the experience of menopause, and how hormones affect us during that stage of our lives. However, already in my mid 30s, my hormones are sending clear messages to take better care of myself. I must make better food choices, and consume what my body needs to function at its best. I also need to listen, when those hormones tell me I am overwhelmed and need to slow down.

Hormones may wreak havoc on our bodies and our minds. We may curse them for all the aggravation they cause us, and wonder why would G-d put them in our bodies. But, they do have an incredible purpose, and we owe a lot of who we are to their presence inside of us.

G-d created hormones to help us in our most primal moments and guide us toward our best lives.