Another Temple Insight from My Daughter

[Anonymous]

My wife and I went to the temple for the second time with our oldest daughter. She enters the MTC on Wednesday, and she wanted to go one more time first. I want to share two things she shared with us after the session:

1) She had a lot rougher time yesterday than the first time. She is a bit of a perfectionist and intellectually inclined. She expects herself to be able to pick things up quickly, since that has been her history so far in her life. She went into the session thinking it would be easier to understand, since she’d been once already (yeah, I know, the naivete of youth 🙄 ), and she found herself getting frustrated when she couldn’t remember things easily. In the midst of that frustration, when she was putting on the ceremonial garb for the first time in the session, one of the sisters in the session who was a total stranger reached out, helped her with something and whispered, “You’re doing a great job.”

My daughter said that this simple action helped her “quit thinking about myself”. It helped her focus on a friend whose name she had put on the prayer roll. It entirely changed the experience for my daughter from that point forward.

There is something profound in that experience – more than one thing, actually.

2) Her favorite part of the endowment is the Law of Consecration. She is a socialist at heart, and she loves the ideology involved in that covenant. I mentioned to her that I thought of her at that point in the session, and she pointed out that the covenant is to be dedicated to the Church, the Kingdom of God AND the establishment of Zion – that if one of those elements is missing (like the etablishment of Zion), the law of consecration is not being fulfilled. In that context, she can serve “in the Church” and work to build a kingdom of some kind, but if she isn’t establishing Zion in that effort, she isn’t living up to her covenant. Any church and kingdom building has to rest on the principles of Zion to be “consecrated” properly.

That was my summary of what she said, but I was touched by both things she shared.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. I had such a hard time with the temple. I haven’t had a recommend since my mission and the last time I was in the temple was the day my wife and I got married. When I was in the MTC, the temple left a bad taste in my mouth. But that is my burden.

I am pretty liberal on many things (not all….. being a proponent of responsible gun ownership for law abiding citizens….another story), but in social matters and a more fair and level playing field, I am pretty liberal. I love some of the social aspects of the church, which is one reason I stay on board and pay tithes and offerings. The Church employs people, feeds people, educates people, etc. Money well spent IMHO. I believed that one day, the church would set up a new order of sorts, perhaps so the nation, if not the planet would not have to set up a total communist society in order to help man kind. I really looked forward to the day and believed one day, I would had it all over to the church and they would redistribute to all, according to needs and in a planet of plenty when conservation is practiced, there would be plenty and no abuse of resources, etc.

Now I am not so sure. I have a hard time in many aspects of how gov’ts spend money, though I freely pay that which I owe to my country, even if they misuse some of it and are quite wasteful in many aspects. The church would surely be more efficient in money. I would hand my property, my food storage my possessions to help those in need knowing I would be taken care of. Now I think there is no way I am handing over my wife’s hard earned food storage (she is real naturalist and cans and dries natural food for storage and has put a lot of sweat equity into what we have). We treat our food storage as a grocery store and the food is constantly cycled though for fresh. If I bag an elk, much of it is bottled or dried. We work hard at it for the proper nutrition.

From what I see of most members of the church, their food storage is made up of cheap, out dated canned goods, or lousy dehydrated food they have had for decades. They buy a bunch of crap then feel better about themselves that they have followed the teachings of the prophet…their food storage is forgotten.

Also, my wife and I work hard to maintain a dept free life except for the house. We save for things we wish to buy, including cars. I bought a 2008 with cash where we put a car payment away each month since 2002 when we bought our last car…for cash. I lost my butt once due to poor money management and following after buying toys, etc. I lost my job a year ago and other than some construction for a few months last year, and due to proper money management, we lived on unemployment for our day to day needs and pulled our house payment out of savings…..well we made it, not that my retirement looks as good as it did, but we made it. Perhaps, this sounds like boasting, sorry if it does, but the point is, most people just can’t manage money. I understand that a lot of people are just living very tight, innocently tight lives and have little or no money to spare, or they slowly sink. If that is the case when the church calls for money, food, etc, I would gladly hand it over, all of it. But from what I see, many, many members out there are getting into trouble because they can’t stop spending money. They buy a bigger house than they needed, they have to have three new vehicles, a boat, ATV’s, etc, and they finance all of it. I refuse to hand over my money to help them out. They can loose their butt first, learn something, then perhaps we can collectively get through this.

What I am saying, is I don’t trust my fellow member, and I definitely don’t trust my bishop to fairly divy things up and I don’t even trust the prophet that he is telling me the truth that now is the time to live such a collective society…..so in short, what I will do, is if someone is hungry, we will feed them….meals, but they cannot have my food. If the gov’t can’t do this efficiently and the gov’t is run by men, then no one can convince me the church can do any better.

[Anonymous]

Ray—I loved what you said about the stranger in the Temple helping your daughter and whispering encouraging words. We are fortunate to have a Temple only about 45 minutes away from us now—but we rarely get there. Our Temple recommends ran out yesterday—-I will get mine renewed, but I don’t think my husband will be getting his renewed at this time. A session is difficult for me to get through–haven’t been able to gague my medication right so that i feel ok—but i have discovered that I can do sealings and initiatory work because I can stop if I am not feeling well, and I can slip out to the bathroom during sealings—-being able to move around really helps me.

I have had strangers help me get my ceremonial clothing right more than once—-and I find it to be such a kind gesture.

I enjoy going to the Temple, and I really want to go with my husband–it seems like I quite often see a little, positive difference in him when we go. Even if he is not going at this time, I need to find a way to get myself there.

I wish I could find a way to get my husband there—he doesn’t realize just how much he needs it. He isn’t DOING anything that would keep him from getting a recommend—-but he is only attending sacrament meeting at this time—-so I guess the part about “do you attend all your meetings?” would be a problem for him. He has also refused any callings they have tried to give him. I’m wishing that this could be one of those times when a leader would look at him and realize that getting to the Temple would be of more benefit to him, than being able to say that he attends all his meetings to make him worthy. But, I’m not the one that can make those decisions.

I don’t have a calling myself, either—but not because I refuse to take one, but more because I’m not sure what i would be able to do at this time. I’ve been able to make a lot more peace with my frustrations I have had with leaders–and I try to ignore the thoughts when they try and sneak in. I get to my meetings more often than not—even though my husband leaves and goes home.

I think this has turned in to rambling—-but I want to let you know how much i appreciate this board—-there seems to much more understanding for people that are struggling, and most things are usually said with kindness.

I go to another board ocassionally—and have been surprised at how the people there will rip people to shreds over something they say

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doesn’t seem to be the best way to help people “Stay LDS”.

[Author]

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