I must say that living so close to a temple has spoiled me. The last time I lived this close to a temple was when my wife and I were first married and living in Provo, Utah. At this point in my life, I have truly come to appreciate my close proximity to living so close to the House of the Lord. In fact, if I were to ever move again I would certainly choose to live in a city within an hour of a temple. When I first joined the Church, there were only 44 temples in operation. Now, just 17 years later there are 126 temples dotting the globe. I still enjoy hearing stories from our members about the days in which Oklahoma City was in the Manti temple district and the wards would take bus trips to attend the temple. Now, I can get to the temple in just under 25 minutes.
There are people today that sell all they own in order to receive the blessings of the temple. Some of these faithful Saints sacrifice all of their worldly possessions in order to go to the temple just once. It is difficult for some of us to even imagine that level of sacrifice. It doesn't make a monthly (or quarterly or yearly, depending on your circumstances) temple visit seem like that much of a hardship, does it?
I would encourage you to visit the temple. It is a sacred place. When faced with life's challenges, put those worries aside and go visit the Lord in His house. He will teach you and comfort if you go prepared and humble. I can assure you that if you go prepared to be instructed by the Master you will get far more out of the trip than you were required to sacrifice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
It is a great blessing to live near a temple! I did not realize how good I had it living in Utah until I moved to Knoxville, TN.
From my house in Knoxville I was equally far from three temples, Nashville, Louisville, and Atlanta, The problem was they were equally 3 1/2 hours away. I could have driven to at least six different temples in Utah in less time!
However, my wife and I were very blessed when we attended the temple while living in Knoxville. Although it wasn't nearly the sacrifice that many others make to attend the temple, it was a small sacrifice for us to attend as we had two children at the time and were not working because I had returned to school to complete a graduate degree. There was something different, though, in making a greater sacrifice to attend the temple. My wife and I could feel blessings in a different way.
Now we live 30 minutes from a temple and feel very fortunate to have found a job near one, so have the opportunity to attend more often.
Post a Comment