The Temple

My Wife and I had the opportunity to attend the Provo Temple last night. We chose to do sealings and we participated in a special experience. In the middle of our work, they escorted three sisters into the room. We assisted with the sealing ordinance of the parents of one of those sisters. Her parents died several years ago. Following the sealing of her parents, she was then sealed to her parents as a daughter. A special spirit was in the room.

The Sealer spoke with us for a few minutes and we had a good discussion. As a result, I walked out of the temple with two new thoughts:

1. The ordinances of the Gospel are chiasmic. Look carefully at the wording of the baptismal prayer and the sealing. There are several words shared in those two prayers which are ONLY used in those two prayers. It begins with the Father and culminates with the Father.

2. An approach I plan to use with the temple from this point forward is to ask myself this question every time, "What can I take away today that will help me improve my behavior or some part of my personality?"  Often I go looking for knowledge, knowledge without conversion is only condemning. It's when we allow that knowledge to mold our character that the temple unfolds a pathway to exaltation. If we're the same person after being in the temple that we were before, we're no closer to the Lord.

This was an interesting observation for me and I'm grateful to the Lord for that small revelation.