Gospel Message Day 102

Temple Anniversary

Some of my earlier Gospel messages (Day 52-Day 60) pertained to the temple. Hopefully from those you got a bit of a sense of how important the temple has always been to me. So today is a very special day for me. It marks 13 years since I received my own temple endowment. I shared this song on my Facebook good news announcement today. It is one that I have loved from the moment I first heard it in Seminary my junior year in high school:




I can testify that in these last 13 years--the most difficult and yet most joyous of my life, I truly have found strength beyond my own because of the power I have been blessed with from serving in the temple. There were times I could not have made it another day except for remembering the promises and blessings that were made to me in the temple. So many times I needed guidance and direction, which I received in the temple. I can't even count how often I needed to go just to feel closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and to feel their love more strongly in the temple than anywhere else. How many tears of sorrow, pain, anguish, loneliness, heartache, confusion, desperation, longing...they cannot ever be counted because of their great numbers. But so great are the tears of joy and gratitude, as well as inevitable calming of my heart and reassurance that I could make it through. For I had the Savior on my side, and the Holy Ghost with me. And I had the added strength of the Atonement to help me get through anything. It has done so, and continues to do so.

Aside from the Gospel (and all it entails), my body, and my eternal family, being able to enter the Lord's temple is the greatest gift and blessing in my life. It is where I can see myself as the Lord sees me, and where I learn how to take that with me back into the world and hold it close so I do not forget what He sees.