Temple Blessings Talk
Good afternoon. I am excited, and nervous, to be up here. Today, I’ve been asked to speak on temple blessings, something very close to my heart.
I think my testimony of temples really started when I was a senior in high school. I was in seminary one day at the beginning of the school year and we were talking about temples. Somehow, the idea of it being hard to go to the temple with how busy we all were came up. My seminary teacher then taught me a lesson that I will never forget.
He asked us to think about the people who had already passed on, who had accepted the gospel and were waiting for us on earth to perform those ordinances they so desired. What were they thinking? He suggested, as we were focused on our friends and homework and dating, that they might be thinking, “What is more important than my salvation?”
That idea, that phrase, hit me hard. What is more important than their salvation? Is homework, or hanging out with friends, or taking a nap, really more important? For me, the answer was no. That lesson motivated me, along with my younger brother, to begin attending the temple weekly. We went every Thursday that year--we missed one week when we were sick. As I attended the temple that year, my testimony of the temple and the blessings that come from diligently attending the temple, was formed.
That year, I saw many blessings, and as I have attended the temple since then--I’ve had ups and downs with how diligently--I’ve seen those same blessings.
One of the biggest blessings of the temple is the peace that comes to us as we attend. In a talk on temple blessings in April 2015, President Monson said, “As we enter through the doors of the temple, we leave behind us the distractions and confusion of the world. Inside this sacred sanctuary, we find beauty and order. There is rest for our souls and respite from the cares of our lives.”
I have felt this in my own life. Since Ben and I have had children, it’s been a lot harder to attend the temple, partly because it feels like a good excuse. It’s hard to find babysitters, it’s hard to sit that long while pregnant, it’s hard to leave for that long while nursing.
But are those things more important than someone’s salvation?
As I have struggled to attend the temple, I have found something interesting. It’s hard to go! Up until the moment I am, like President Monson said, walking through the doors of the temple, I struggle with the effort of going. But as soon as I am through the doors, I am so glad I came. I am filled with the Spirit and feel peace.
Speaking of that peace, President Monson said, “Such peace can permeate any heart--hearts that are troubled, hearts that are burdened down with grief, hearts that feel confusion, hearts that plead for help.”
I am so grateful the Lord has sent us such a place of sanctuary!
Another related blessing is the strength we receive from temple attendance, that we take with us as we come back to the day to day life. President Monson said, “In our lives, we will have temptations; we will have trials and challenges. As we go to the temple, as we remember the covenants we make there, we will be better able to overcome those temptations and to bear our trials. In the temple, we can find peace.”
This strength comes as we regularly attend the temple. Regular attendance allows us to reaffirm our covenants often and to then remember those covenants better as we go about our lives.
Another related blessing is the answers to prayer we can receive while in the temple. In the temple, the veil is thinner and we are closer to God and heaven than at any other time. This allows us to receive revelation in a way different than at any other time.
As we are in the temple, we are also anxiously engaged in God’s work, bringing the Holy Ghost and allowing us a strong connection with heaven. Quentin L. Cook said, “Often in the temple, and as we engage in family history research, we feel promptings and have impressions from the Holy Ghost.”
I remember the first time I went to the temple seeking an answer. I was twenty years old and had a mission call; The time from my getting my call to my leaving was about six months and I was leaving in a couple months. Then Ben asked me to marry him, whether that meant me staying home or him waiting while I went on my mission. Marrying Ben was something I had dreamed about for years and I felt very torn. I wanted to make the right decision, not just the one that I wanted.
That day in the temple, the answer came so clearly. As I sat in the temple, I had my answer--either one was a good choice. Neither was the “right” choice. I was able to move forward (I did decide to stay home) with peace in my heart that it was a choice that God wanted for me. It was another time my testimony of the temple was strengthened.
Another temple blessing is the work itself we do in the temple. Something that Ben and I are trying to teach our own children is that work is a blessing from God. He has asked us to work for us, not for him. The temple is one of the ways that He has given us to work and serve others.
Through family history work and through performing temple ordinances for others, we are able to bring others to the gospel. We are given a way to serve them! Sometimes it feels like only certain things “count” when it comes to service, things like helping someone move or taking them dinner. I know sometimes I feel like I’m not doing enough, but it can feel hard to find ways to serve. We need to remember that missionary work is an important form of service and that the temple is one way we can perform missionary work!
Quentin L. Cook has said, “The primary blessings of the temple are the ordinances of exaltation. The gospel plan is about exaltation and encompasses making and keeping sacred covenants with God.”
If we don’t perform those ordinances--including baptism and the sacred temple ordinances--then everything else we do in this life don’t really matter. Our salvation is dependent upon those temple ordinances, and we have the opportunity to help others reach that salvation.
Perhaps the greatest blessinsg of the temple are the eternal blessings we commit to. We are here to make it back to God, and to help as many as we can do the same. What better way than to do so in the temple! And with our families!
President Monson, speaking of the sealing of families, said, “There is no blessing more precious to me than the peace and comfort I receive from the knowledge I have that she and I will be together again.”
I feel the same! There is no blessing more precious to me than my family, and I am so grateful that temples make it possible for me to be with them for all eternity.
I remember when Ben and I were preparing to get married, we made appointments with our bishops. To get sealed in the temple, you get a special recommend specifically for the sealing.
My interview with the bishop was pretty typical for me until the last question. As I finished the interview with him, my bishop looked at me and asked me if I felt I was worthy to enter the temple of the Lord and be sealed to Ben.
As I thought over my teenage and first college years, I was overwhelmed by the Spirit. I knew that I had kept my life clean, and I was filled with gratitude for the leaders, friends, and family who had taught me and helped me do so. I was grateful for the Spirit and for repentance. I was so grateful to say yes to that question, and I felt my Heavenly Father with me.
In the temple on our wedding day, after Ben and I got dressed, they needed us to wait a little bit while our family was still arriving. We sat on a secluded bench in the corner of a hallway somewhere, just the two of us, ready to commit to each other. We held hands and I remember looking down at our hands, intertwined, and knowing that I was making the right choice, in the right place, with the right person. And for me, Benjamin is the biggest blessing I have received from the temple.
President Monson said, “May our Heavenly Father bless us that we have the spirit of temple worship.”
I love that phrase, the spirit of temple worship. As I am progressing in this life, I know that I will come up against hardships and trials. I know that I will be imperfect. How grateful I am for a temple so close and the temple blessings God has given me!
I know that as we attend the temple, we will be blessed for it. I know that God uses us to help bring salvation to others. I know that the temple is the house of God. I know that through making and keeping sacred covenants in the temple, we can one day return back to our Heavenly Father and be with our families for eternity.
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