The Lord asks us to build temples

A few weeks ago I read Docterine and Covenants section 115 and I was actually a little surprised at how strongly the Lord was commanding the temple be built. Today my primary lesson was on Heavenly Father wanting us to build temples. I thought about these scriptures and how the reason he wants us to have temples on the earth is so we can go inside and commune with our God and do His work in a way that is beyond just our Sunday worship service.

I then remembered being 8 years old and living in Elko, Nevada. It was 1993 and the Salt Lake City temple was celebrating 100 years of being open. I heard a lot about the temple and my grandparents live 2 blocks from the temple. My Grandma Jo wanted her grandchildren to be able to touch the walls of the temple. She made arrangements for us to be able to do this. I remember touching the walls and thinking about what they were made of. Then I thought about the movie Mountain of the Lord. I remember watching the chisel away at these big rocks to turn them into the walls of the temple. Today in primary I told the kids that it was really difficult for them to do this job of hauling the stone and chiseling it into the blocks of the temple. I asked them why they did this. I was touched by the two replies I had. From a six year old, "Because Jesus told them that they should build a temple." and from a five year old, "When you have a temple you can be sealed together as families." They are both exactly right. Our Heavenly Father wants us to have temples on the earth and has told us to build them and to go to the temple. In the temple we make covenants and are given promises of eternal families. I am thankful that there are temple on the earth today and that they truly are a house of God.

Personal progress

I really enjoyed this article in the most recent Ensign.

I know that we must always progress and move forward. We can't just be okay with feeling like we are doing "good enough." There was an excerpt at the end of the article that I loved.

"In Alma chapter 37, we read of Alma’s advice to his son Helaman. Inverses 41–42, Alma talks about Lehi’s family and the Liahona. He explains that the Liahona would not work when “they were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence” and that “they did not progress in their journey; therefore, they tarried in the wilderness, or did not travel a direct course.” Reading these verses helped me realize that I was not progressing. I was not exercising my faith or being diligent in anything in my life. I had stopped working toward a goal. I was simply waiting for something to happen."

Progress is essential and I know that we should constantly be finding ways to be better and improve. I know that as I work on improving in many different areas of our lives we will continue to come closer to the image and plan that our Heavenly Father has for us. He sees our potential and wants us to continually progress so that we can be closer to that potential.

Stepping up

Today I got to go to Sunday instead of primary and we were talking about partaking of the sacrament each week. It was pointed out that we should be preparing for the sacrament throughout the week. (This is something that I need to work on.) A comment was mad that some have thought of the sacrament as a high point each week where we can repent and remember our covenants and be clean. Then as the week goes on we might fall into old habits and will be in need of repenting again. So our process look like a wave with peaks, but in reality it should be more like a stair step. Each week the sacrament would be our chance to step up to the next level and progress spiritually. I really loved this analogy and I am hoping it will help me improve and progress in my spiritual journey.

Choose This Day

so much to learn

Sometimes I find it overwhelming to realize how much there is to learn about the gospel and from the scriptures. There are so many scripture stories that I don't know completely or verses that don't make sense to me. There are even times where I sit down and try to put all my energy to piecing together a passage in Isaiah and I come out feeling like I lack the knowledge to REALLY say I understand the gospel. As I think about this I realize that while there are always new things that I can learn and more for me to understand, the gospel really is made up of simple truths. As I relearn some of these simple truths that is when I have a confirmation of my testimony. I am grateful for those moments. Today I had the experience of feeling a simple truth whispered to me. I learned (again) that Heavenly Father loves each of His children and he wants us all to partake of the blessings of baptism. I am glad that I was able to relearn this and understand how important it is to support those that are interested and exploring the possibility of baptism.

What greater witness can you have?

In Docterine and Covenants 6:22-23 it says:

22Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you desire a further witness, cast your mind upon the night that you cried unto me in your heart, that you might ^aknow concerning the truth of these things.

23Did I not speak ^apeace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater ^bwitness can you have than from God?

I have thought of this scripture many times when I feel that I am getting stuck in the cycle of asking the same questions over and over again. Often times I have received an answer and I wonder if it was a REAL answer or just what I wanted to hear. I love this scripture that reminds us that peace coming to our minds is the greatest answer or Heavenly Father can give us. I am grateful for times I have felt peace and known something that Heavenly Father wanted me to know.

Easter

I have been wanting to start writing on this blog again for quite some time, but for some reason I felt a little overwhelmed as to when/how to start again. This morning I felt the Spirit strongly as I read about the Atonement on this beautiful Easter day. I decided that I would share the inspiration I had. When I logged on I saw that my sister had posted yesterday, telling me to write more. She is right...it has been too long. I still have a testimony and I still want to share, so with that, I am going to renew my efforts.

I began to read from different talks today about the Savior and the suffering he endured for us, beginning in Gethsemane. Elder Bruce R. McConkie said this of his suffering:

We do not know, we cannot tell, no mortal mind can conceive the full import of what Christ did in Gethsemane.

We know He sweat great gouts of blood from every pore as He drained the dregs of that bitter cup His Father had given Him.

We know He suffered, both body and spirit, more than it is possible for man to suffer, except it be unto death.

We know that in some way, incomprehensible to us, His suffering satisfied the demands of justice, ransomed penitent souls from the pains and penalties of sin, and made mercy available to those who believe in His holy name.

We know that He lay prostrate upon the ground as the pains and agonies of an infinite burden caused Him to tremble and would that He might not drink the bitter cup.

He suffered for each of us individually in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knows each of us personally and knows what we need and how we can be led through trials and repentance. As Elder McConkie said, "in some way, incomprensible to us, his suffering satisfied the demands of justice." I know I will never completely comprehend what suffering he experienced, but I look at the strength that he had and who he was as a man and the life he lived. I see that even Christ, the son of God felt this was more than he could endure. He knew it must be done and I am sure He had spent much of his life preparing for this moment, yet when it came it felt like it was too much, even for Him. Henry B. Eyring said this:

The Savior showed us that humility. you have read of how He prayed in the garden while He was suffering a trial on our behalf beyond our ability to comprehend or to endure, or even for me to describe. you remember His prayer: “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

He knew and trusted His Heavenly Father, the great elohim. He knew that His Father was all-powerful and infinitely kind. The Beloved Son asked for the power of deliverance to help Him in humble words like those of a little child.

The Father did not deliver the Son by removing the trial. For our sakes He did not do that, and He allowed the Savior to finish the mission He came to perform.

Then He was taken to be persecuted, whipped and hung on the cross for our sins, sadness, shame and sickness. He continued to suffer for each of us individually so that he could truly have empathy for us and understand and help each of us in the way we individually needed it. Today I thought about how he hung for all to see as a common criminal. I thought about how humiliating it must have been. His clothes were taken, he was mockingly adorned with a crown of thorns and hung as criminal. While he suffered many pains for each of us, he even suffered and knows the feeling of embarrassment and public humiliation. Then as he came to the end of his suffering in John 19:30 it says:

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is^afinished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

I was touched by the word "finish." Both in the verse from John and the quote from President Eyring. Christ did not stop and his suffering did not end until it was finished. I am amazed, grateful and humbled by the thought that he did this until it was a complete and whole atonement. He did not stop until EVERYTHING had been atoned for. There was no part of the suffering that was left undone. He completed and experienced everything that He needed to in order for the atonement to be complete. There is not one sin or sadness or infirmity that I can feel and not turn to the Savior for help. I know that the Savior did this for me and all of God's children and I am grateful for this Easter Sunday and each Sunday when I take the sacrament that I can remember this.