We had the opportunity to give talks in sacrament meeting today.
Because we move around so often, we generally get to talk about twice a year. I love it! (okay not so much the actual delivery, or the staying up until 2:00 the night before because I'm such a procrastinator, but I love the process and the very specific direction it gives my study).
Anyway, for anyone who is interested, this is more or less the talk I gave today. (I write it down for my records, but try not to read it when I actually give it. How do you do talks?)
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| We forgot our camera --all we had was my husband's phone. I guess we'll just have to go back. :) |
Preparing Ourselves
and Our Families to go to the Temple
This past Friday, we had the opportunity as a family to go
to the Boise Temple open house. Although
our children are young, I wanted to give them an opportunity to see the inside
of the temple, feel the spirit there, and to hopefully gain a desire to go
there when they are older and when it is a fully functioning edifice dedicated
to the Lord.
We prepared the children by holding an FHE last Monday about
temples, and announcing that we would get to go see the inside of the temple in
a few days. We briefly told them what
would happen when we went to visit the temple.
We explained how it wasn’t dedicated yet, and that is why anyone,
including little children could go through. We talked about what we would see
there, and how things would work as we participated in the tour. Like most of
our FHE lessons, it was short and to the point, and we moved on to an activity
and treats. We then went on about our
week as usual.
When Friday evening rolled around, we rushed to the open
house, striving to leave behind the distractions and frustrations of the
morning. It had been a less than ideal
day, but we tried to change that as we recognized the importance of this
wonderful opportunity.
As we walked the
halls of the temple, the children were subdued and generally reverent. They
were duly impressed by the beautiful architecture and recognized some of the
things we had talked about. I admit though that we had to move quickly through
each room, and I longed to go slower, to take our time and point out certain
things to my children. I wished I had done even more preparation with them, and
I’m afraid that the white booties on their feet might have made just as lasting
an impression as anything. It was over
all too quickly, so after the tour we wandered around the temple grounds
allowing the children to explore the outside of the building and to discuss
things a little more. It was a little chilly, but we were blessed with a
beautiful sunset and we stopped to enjoy it.
As we paused for a moment, I asked my five-year-old son how he had felt
in the temple, and with his limited vocabulary he replied, “I felt like…
kindness.”
I don't know that I could have explained what the influence of the Spirit feels like any better.
As I pondered his response, I felt gratitude for a Loving
Heavenly Father who blessed our meager efforts –our pitiful attempts at
teaching and providing a spiritual experience for our kids, allowing us to
forget the unpleasantness of the morning, and still have a fun and meaningful family
outing.
I am often humbled at how our seemingly small acts and righteous
desires can be magnified beyond our expectations. It is as if the floodgates of heaven are
ready to burst, just waiting for the go-ahead that begins with our simply
asking.
Personally, I believe that Heavenly Father wanted our
children to have a spiritual experience just as much as we did, if not more,
but He needed us to provide the opportunity. That is part of our job as
parents.
At the heart of our efforts though, is the goal of actually going
to the temple to participate in sacred ordinances.
Preparation for such cannot be done in one quick FHE
lesson. It is a great responsibility and
rests upon our shoulders as we prepare individually, and as we teach our
children to prepare themselves, to make and keep sacred covenants in the temple.
So how do we prepare ourselves and our children for the
Temple? I’ve come up with three
suggestions that can help us.
I.
Recognize the sacredness of the Temple and the importance
of the ordinances performed there.
II.
Live as if you have already made temple
covenants.
III.
Plan to continue to acquire gospel knowledge and
attend the temple regularly.
First, we need to
recognize the sacredness of the Temple and the importance of the covenants made
there. There is hardly anything in
the world these days that would cultivate such feelings --it seems nothing is
sacred. However, the world can understand the worth of precious
things, and knowing this, Jesus in His sermon on the mount used the analogy of throwing
pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6). Things that are precious and highly-prized or
rare and costly are treated differently; so should we learn to treat sacred things
differently. In a CES broadcast to the
youth of the Church back in 2004, Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught that we
should dress and act differently in sacred places including our church meetings
and especially in and around the temple. How we dress and act is an outward
expression of an inward conviction. Sacredness is accompanied by the presence
of the Holy Ghost that testifies of truth and if the Spirit is offended by
anything within our dress or conduct we would lose that sense of what is sacred. Elder Christofferson explained,
“When you
develop a deepening reverence for sacred things, the Holy Spirit becomes your
frequent and then constant companion. You grow in understanding and truth…”
Elder Christofferson also warned,
“On the other hand, those who do
not appreciate holy things will lose them. Absent a feeling of reverence, they
will grow increasingly casual in attitude and conduct. They will drift from the
moorings that their covenants with God could provide. Their feelings of
accountability to God will diminish and then be forgotten. Thereafter, they
will care only about their own comfort and satisfying their uncontrolled
appetites. Finally, they will come to despise sacred things, even God, and then
they will despise themselves.”
The commandments of the Gospel, as well as the covenants we
make in the temple, are a protection to us as we go throughout this life. It is a blessing and a privilege to know
these things and live accordingly, and it’s never too early or too late to
start.
The second way to prepare ourselves and our families to go to
the Temple is to live our lives as if we
had already made temple covenants. We must teach our children to live
according to Church standards regarding honesty, modesty, chastity, living the
word of wisdom, etc. Those who do this will
have the companionship of the Holy Ghost to guide them and broaden their
understanding.
Growing up my sisters and I were taught to dress modestly,
meaning that we wouldn’t have to change anything about the way we dressed even after
we had gone to the temple. This not only
prepared us to go, but it was the beginning of understanding that immodest
dress was disrespectful to ourselves as well as to the Lord. It is not just an arbitrary rule or mere
suggestion, if the Lord requires it of His covenant-making people it is because
He expects that they understand the reason behind it. This goes back to my
first suggestion of reverencing the sacred, and includes sloppy and casual
dress or behavior as well. In that same CES broadcast I referred to before, Elder
Christofferson explained,
“Some say dress and hair don’t
matter—they say it’s what’s inside that counts. I believe that it is what’s
inside a person that truly counts, but that’s what worries me. Casual dress at
holy places and events is a message about what is inside a person. It may be
pride or rebellion or something else, but at a minimum it says, “I don’t get
it. I don’t understand the difference between the sacred and the profane.”
In a 1998 devotional at BYU-Idaho (then Ricks College),
Elder David A. Bednar as the President of the institution explained the
seemingly strict honor and dress codes to students saying,
“My dear young brothers and
sisters, the honor code and dress codes are not obstacles designed by out of touch
old people to hassle you during your time on the [BYU-Idaho] campus. Rather,
the honor code is a lesser law preparation to enter the house of the Lord and
make sacred covenants, and the dress code is a lesser law preparation for how
you will dress and should act after you entered in to those covenants. If you struggle at [BYU-Idaho] to obey the
lesser and preparatory guidelines contained in the honor and dress codes, then
may I candidly suggest that you will not be prepared to make those covenants in
the temple.”
Such preparations and principles must be taught in the home. In the recent October General Conference,
Elder Quentin L. Cook called upon parents to combat the sinking morals of
society saying,
“Parents, the days are long past
when regular, active participation in Church meetings and programs, though
essential, can fulfill your sacred responsibility to teach your children to
live moral, righteous lives and walk uprightly before the Lord. With President
Monson’s announcement this morning, it is essential that this be faithfully
accomplished in homes which are places of refuge where kindness, forgiveness,
truth, and righteousness prevail. Parents must have the courage to filter or monitor
Internet access, television, movies, and music. Parents must have the courage
to say no, defend truth, and bear powerful testimony. Your children need to
know that you have faith in the Savior, love your Heavenly Father, and sustain
the leaders of the Church. Spiritual maturity must flourish in our homes.”
Elder Perry and Elder Perkins also addressed this topic of
teaching our children and strengthening families as did many other general
authorities in the recent conference. I
encourage you to go back and study those talks, specifically looking for ways
we can prepare for entering the temple. It seemed to me that one of the
over-arching themes of this last conference was that we must strive to gain a testimony of the Gospel by study and
prayer and then seek true conversion through living the Gospel. This is a
life-long process, which brings me to my third and final suggestion.
We must plan to
continue to acquire gospel knowledge, and plan to attend the temple regularly
throughout our lives.
Finally going to the temple is not the end-all destination
for true disciples of Jesus Christ. Going for ourselves is an extremely important
step in our eternal progression, but if we are truly converted we will understand,
and like the fruit of the tree of life in Lehi’s dream, we would rejoice and desire
that all may partake (1 Nephi 8:12). Luckily we are blessed to be able to
return to the Temple as often as we like as we serve those who have gone on
before us by doing those ordinances for them by proxy which they cannot do for
themselves. This is how I understand the
scripture that explains, “they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we
without our dead be made perfect.” (D&C 128:15). I think that in some ways, we
would have a harder time becoming perfected if we could not go to the temple
over and over again for them, being reminded of our covenants and learning more
and more each time we go.
In another talk by
Elder Bednar, this time from April of 2009, he speaks of conversations he had
with emeritus general authorities who later became temple presidents. He asked them what they had learned as temple
presidents that they wished they had better understood as general authorities.
The answers that came could be summarized in this way:
“I have come to understand better
the protection available through our temple covenants and what it means to make
an acceptable offering of temple worship. There is a difference between
church-attending, tithe-paying members who occasionally rush into the temple to
go through a session and those members who faithfully and consistently worship
in the temple.”
How grateful I am that we will soon have the temple in Boise
rededicated and functional again. It is
my hope that all of us will try harder to make it to the temple whether for the
first time or the 101st, and that we will make it a regular
habit.
I know that as we do this, and as we diligently strive to
teach our families and prepare ourselves, making worthy goals of temple attendance, the Lord will magnify our efforts
and bless us.
I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
