The Majesty of the Temple

There is a majesty to the LDS temples that is absolutely astounding and makes for it to be one of the most sacred experiences every time that you enter into this holy ground. To enter into this, the House of the Lord, you have to make certain covenants and promises with the Lord and for this reason, you only go through when you are ready; there is no timeline or quota that you must meet, it all depends on the condition of your heart and willingness to live your life at a higher standard. It sounds intimidating, but you will know when you are ready and will feel it resonate within you as witnessed by the Holy Spirit.

I cannot describe the pure peace that you feel! A couple of years ago, back in 2013, I was getting ready to enter the Temple and felt is expedient to just go and sit on the grounds outside of the temple--anyone, member or non-member, is welcome onto the grounds. It was late summer (August, I believe), so there were leaves that were starting to turn yellow, but still all the flowers were in bloom with bumble bees buzzing, and I was able to go there and just sit and ponder on the direction of my life at that time. Just being on the grounds, I felt completely embraced by the love of my Heavenly Father and the feeling that he CARED about what I cared about.

In January 2014, I finally entered into the House of the Lord. Things in life did not exactly work out the way that was planned on that first visit, but when does life ever do such?

After that first visit, I then decided to return again as often as I could and this decision greatly blessed and enriched my life, giving comfort when comfort was needed and direction with future decisions. More than anything, I felt so completely loved. There is this quote by President Packer that describes how I felt:

"There is something cleansing and clarifying about the spiritual atmosphere of the temple. Sometimes our minds are so beset with problems, and there are so many things clamoring for attention at once, that we just cannot think clearly and see clearly. At the temple the dust of distraction seems to settle out, the fog and the haze seem to lift, and we can “see” things that we were not able to see before and find a way through our troubles that we had not previously known." (Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple, (2002), 1–37)

Every time I went to the Temple, I found an answer that I had in my heart. More often than not, my answer was a confirming feeling of complete joy: the kind of joy that makes you want to bounce up and down and share the good news with everyone that you meet. I am filled with so much love, that I know with my full heart that there is such a divine inheritance within every single one of us. We are children of God! Can you imagine if that was how you looked and interacted with everyone around you? This world would be such a better place.

As I am getting ready to serve a mission, I am reminded of that love of God over and over again. He loves us so much, that we are given promises of Salvation, of eternal marriages and families, and most importantly, we are given the promise of the Atonement--that through our faith and the enabling powers of this infinite sacrifice of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane (also known as grace), we will return to the presence of God.

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ that needs to be shared to every person.