- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
How do I best prepare my son for the endowment? He is in the process of submitting his mission papers.
I recall being quite frustrated when I was preparing for my endowment because no one would say anything. I thought that even Boyd K. Packer’s book on the temple was not helpful (of course I now understand that book from a whole different point of view). So, I was very open with my son. If you pay attention there is very little you actually covenant not to reveal, mostly to do with signs and tokens. I don’t want to offend anyone here by saying exactly what I told him (even though you can find the whole thing with a Google search), but I did tell him what the movie is about (I recall thinking my first time, “This is it?”) and I told him that it’s all symbolic. I really didn’t beat around the bush. In retrospect, I was not very clear about the initiatory and could have explained that better. I also told him not to get all caught up in trying to memorize things, and to enjoy the peace of the celestial room. You sit him down in private and tell him everything about the temple except the few things you promised not to reveal. Walk him through from the beginning, step by step. When you get to the part that you cannot reveal, just quote from Brigham Young and say you’ll then receive “key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood” (Journal of Discourses, v. 2, p. 31), and that you can’t talk the particulars about those “signs and tokens” outside the temple. What DarkJedi and Sheldon said, word-for-word. There is no reason any faithful member should be surprised by anything in the temple – and it is different enough from everything else they experience in church that it MUST be explained beforehand. It’s our “high church” worship, and our Sunday worship is “low church”. It can be jarring and unsettling if members don’t understand the difference.
Yes, it can be jarring. When I took out my endowment I was going in blind, no temple prep courses, I didn’t even have a mentor/escort. It was far away from home as well so it’s not like I recognized anyone in the temple. I approached the day with some anxiety but obviously I didn’t feel like bolting mid-ordinance. Going in blind like that made for some funny, memorable experiences. E.g. shortly after entering the temple I saw someone in their temple clothes. Someone near me made the comment “they shouldn’t be on this floor.” Now one thing I was aware of is that the temple had a cafeteria on the floor below, so naturally I assumed that the person I had seen was a chef.
So yes… tell him everything except the things you are under covenant not to reveal. Knowledge helps remove anxiety from what should be a spiritually uplifting day.
What others have said. I took the temple Prep class 2 times. Read all the manuals as much as I could. But non of it prepared me at all. “Prepare” is not what that class does as I found out.
We need a better name for temple Prep class since I was kind of in shock even after taking it twice.
Likewise I looked across the room and saw other missionaries with a face of shock and bewilderment as their parents comforted them.
Be honest except for the things you promised not to reveal.
We hold that Christ and the atonement is sacred, yay the most sacred.
But we talk about that regularly.
Quite, honest, and sympathetic is how I would do it with my child.
Oh and also not trying to focus on the meanings or what the meanings mean to others or to yourself.
If it comes it comes, it means to you what it does or doesn’t at that moment. Things may later come to mean not so much, others may come to mean a lot that don’t in that moment.
That’s the nature of symbols, but trying to force memory and meaning hurts those who try and can even leave a scare if trying to force a puzzle piece in the wrong place. Be patient, there may be a place overlooked where it does fit later.
Take him to a Catholic Mass. Note the participation of the parishioners. Talk about it afterwards. Explain that the Mormon Temple Ceremony is a religious rite, just like the mass is. I’d add in that there are covenants, and symbols associated with the covenants. We show that we have received and know these symbols, and this represents our keeping the covenants… and I even would say that the specific covenants are symbolic of our commitment to live a god-centered life. That everything in the rite is symbolic, but not in a specific way… this means that… rather in a meaning of life way… acceptance, commitment, adherence of a godly path.
Thanks for all the feedback. Endowed from On High is the best book I have seen on this.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.