The Blessing of Clarity

I was asked to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting this past Sunday and the assigned topic was  - The Blessings of Temple Attendance. I wanted to share it on my blog to remind myself and my posterity to get our buns to the temple. I felt Heavenly Father's direction and hand in my life like no other time before while preparing a talk.

I am reliant on Him. 

I am thankful for Him.

I received my temple recommend two weeks before my husband and I were to wed. When I walked into the stake president’s office he said, “I’ve heard you’ve worked hard to get here.”  My insides shouted, “Yes! Yes I have!”

 My whole life had been centered on that very moment and I felt extremely blessed and excited to walk out those meeting house doors with my recommend in hand.

I knew what I was doing was right. I was so nervous I would lose this precious piece of paper, validating my worthiness, that I reminded myself of Molly in the Unsinkable Molly Brown after they received their first cash in from their ore mine. She wanted to hide her fortune of money in the least suspecting place if a thief came calling and determined the wood stove was just that place. Her husband came in from the cold a few minutes later and decided to warm himself by starting a fire…. And you can imagine the rest.  I did not want my temple recommend starting on fire. After going through various hiding spots I deemed my wallet the proper location. J

Receiving my temple recommend was grand but it would be “one upped” just a couple weeks later when I attended the temple. After participating in the temple endowment session and being welcomed into the Celestial room by family, friends, and my awesome hot fiancé I felt a variety of blessings– peace, joy, enlightenment, strength, love…

Just two days ago my son Dash was trying to explain something so precisely to me and he said, “there are so many words to choose from it’s hard to know which ones to use”.

That’s how I feel about labeling the blessings of temple attendance. How do I know which words to choose when they’re all so magnificent?

The Spirit, who is ever on our side, gave me a little help this week in the identification of one single word.

Clarity.

The temple blesses us with clarity –it makes things clear:

President Packer referred to it as the place where the dust of distraction settles.

My mother told me that only two days ago the temple was overflowing with youth who performed over 500 ordinances by 8 a.m. The deceased they served and sacrificed their sleep for will not be the only ones who are blessed. These youth will be blessed with clarity.

One of my YW from our old ward told me that her weekly temple attendance to do Baptism’s for the Dead helps her to resist temptation.

Elder Oaks said, “Remember your covenants and be faithful in temple attendance.” He went on to say that a wise Bishop once told him that, “A priesthood bearers’ fall into pornography never occurs during regular worship in the temple. It happens when he has become causal in his temple worship.”

#1 The temple provides the clarity we need to resist temptation. And not just one or two temptations but President Monson says, “EVERY Temptation” EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. President Packer said, “Our labors in the temple cover us with a shield and a protection, both individually and as a people.”

#2 The Clarity to feel Peace. I have a friend who loved the single life. She was comfortable in her current season and wasn’t in a hurry to give her hand to anyone. She was eventually called to serve in the temple once a week and also made sure to attend a session of her own as well. Down the road she found the man for her and agreed to be his eternal companion. She attributes this decision to the time she spent in the temple. It allowed her the clarity to feel at peace with the prospective union. A few years later she was offered that sweet peace again when she felt her marriage was in ruin. She found herself in the Celestial room begging God, with tears streaming down her cheeks, to save her marriage. In that same room she saw a woman, who too, was crying. She felt a nudge from the Lord saying to her, “Go hug her. Be my arm and I’ll give you everything you desire.” She went over and gave this woman a great big hug, felt immense peace, wondered if she’d be referred to as the weird woman who gives random hugs in the Celestial room and now,  many years later, her marriage has exceeded the strength of her initial desires. The Son of God promised us, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be trouble, neither let it be afraid.”

#3 The temple gives us the clarity to love. Different kinds of love - There is no doubting the immeasurable amount of love I feel for my spouse when attending the temple together. This love and adoration follows us out of the temple and fortifies our marriage throughout the weeks to follow. I am thankful for him every day. But I’ve witnessed another kind of love -the Love our Heavenly Father and Savior has for each and everyone one of us. Referring back to the story I shared previously about my friend who was struggling with marital issues – I went to the temple around this same time although I was praying for a very different thing -I was hoping she’d have the strength to leave her spouse. In my eyes he was the epitome of everything vile and I prayed for the Lord to bless her with the strength to leave. I then felt the resounding impression that she can’t leave because she is his blessing.  The Lord loved her husband. The Lord was blessing him with a wife who loved him unceasingly and would help him in his journey home. Attending the temple gave me the clarity to begin to love someone I really didn’t want to and also the clarity to forgive.

#4 Temple attendance gives you the clarity needed when setting priorities.  I have a friend who is the busy mother of nine children and is also a small business owner. She’s the kind of gal you see and think, “How does she do it all?” Her secret is that she and her husband have made it a goal throughout their marriage to attend the temple once a week. She refers to this as her marriage/family insurance. And although her time is precious, temple attendance helps her in setting her priorities which are, to name a few, exhibit patience, love and understanding to her family and she has also set the priority to find others to serve and follow through. Her regular temple attendance gives her the clarity to center her priorities on things of an eternal nature instead of a worldly one.

#5 The Clarity that you’re needed and have purpose – My parent’s serve in the Boise temple and witnessed an elderly lady named Sister Harris, serving on a regular basis. She attended the temple every single day it was open and didn’t only do one session, but two – she even followed through on her 100^th birthday. My parent’s told me “it was a blessing to witness and also a blessing to Sister Harris to know that she could continue to make a contribution, even in the most advanced stage of life.” President Monson said, “the temple provides purpose to our lives.”

#6 The Clarity to endure. – President Ballard shared the following message, “When Nauvoo fell in September of 1846 there were unbearable conditions for the Saints in the poor camps. When word reached Winter Quarters, Brigham Young immediately called the brethren together. After explaining the situation and reminding them of the covenant made in the Nauvoo Temple that no one who wanted to come, no matter how poor, would be left behind, he gave them this remarkable challenge: “Now is the time for labor,” he said. “Let the fire of the covenant which you made in the House of the Lord, burn in your hearts, like flame unquenchable” Within a few days, in spite of near-destitute conditions at Winter Quarters, many wagons were rolling eastward to rescue the Saints in the poor camps along the Mississippi River.

We often hear of the suffering and the sacrifice those early Saints endured, and we ask ourselves, how did they do it? What was it that gave them such strength? Part of the answer lies in President Young’s powerful words. Those early Latter-day Saints had made covenants with God, and those covenants burned like unquenchable fire in their hearts.”

#7 The clarity received from temple attendance provides direction.  – One of my sisters received a distinct NO! in the temple when inquiring whether a marriage proposal was right for her.

Luckily, my husband felt the overwhelming push of a YES! when seeking if I was the one for him.

I have another sister who was VERY DONE having children after a scary experience with baby #4 and then after a trip to the temple she and her spouse knew baby #5 really wanted to come to their home.

“A bishop wanted to decide who he should choose for his counselors. He could not decide on one of them. He testified that by fasting, meditation, and prayer in the temple, he was enlightened and assured that his choice would be right. He moved ahead and his choice proved to be correct.” (Harold Glen Clark)

#8 One of the greatest blessings of temple attendance is the clarity to help us view things from an eternal prospective. Elder Faust said, “This life makes no logical sense unless we think in terms of the eternities. The transcendent blessings of life and eternity are received within the sacred walls of the temple.” The church has started a pilot program where young people, who have received their call but are waiting to depart on their missions, have taken the opportunity to become temple ordinance workers. There is one young man my parents told me about who was leaving in two weeks but wanted to take advantage of the temple experience so he worked two shifts per day/four days per week. They shared with me that, “that’s four months’ worth of work in two weeks.” What a blessing of clarity this will give these soon to depart missionaries of the “big picture”. They’ll be able to serve their missions not only seeking to remind the Lord’s sheep of the truthfulness of the gospel and have them get baptized, but also to push them to keep on striving to be worthy to enter His Holy House. On LDS.org it says, “Everything in the Church—the meetings and activities, the missionary efforts, the lessons taught and the hymns—all lead to the work done in holy temples.”

I worked hard, and am still working every day to maintain my worthiness to hold a temple recommend –which is good. But what is even better is if I use it and receive all of the blessing awaiting me. President Hunter shared a story one time where he said, “At the close of a fast and testimony meeting, the bishop remarked, ‘We have had a spiritual experience today listening to the testimonies borne by each other. This is because we have come fasting according to the law of the Lord. But let us never forget that the law consists of two parts: that we fast by abstaining from food and drink and that we contribute what we have thereby saved to the bishop’s storehouse for the benefit of those who are less fortunate.’ Then he added: ‘I hope no one of us will leave today with only half a blessing.”

Let’s go to the temple and claim our blessings – all of them – not just half.

Go and be blessed with clarity.