Windows of Heaven

Today, as I sat in the celestial room of the Phoenix Arizona Temple, I felt the sweet peace and strength of the Spirit of the Lord sweep through me.  I sat with my husband and my three oldest children and participated in the second dedicatory session of this House of the Lord.  The talks were wonderful, but when the choir sang I felt the windows of heaven were opened.

I thrilled to each note, and as we joined the choir in singing the powerful hymn, "The Spirit of God", I knew that the Lord had accepted this holy house.  I knew that angels in heaven were rejoicing with us.  I was reminded of my Heavenly Father's love for me, and I was reminded of my deep testimony of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

In preparation for this temple dedication, I spent some time this morning reading and pondering Sister Linda K. Burton's most recent General Conference talk, "Prepared in a Manner That Never Had Been Known."  I loved how each of the talks in the General Women's Session were about covenants.  Making and keeping covenants--sacred promises with our Father in Heaven--brings us spiritual strength.  Making and keeping covenants helps to open the windows of heaven in our individual lives, so we can receive divine direction and heavenly healing.

Sister Burton references the parable of the ten virgins; she has us "consider this parable as a pattern for temple preparation."  Reading her talk inspired me to renew my efforts to consistently add spiritual oil to my lamp of testimony.  Being in the temple gave me a renewed desire to encourage my children to prepare themselves daily to make and keep sacred covenants.

I invite each of you to experience more fully the power of the Lord in your lives.  Sister Burton states, "As we consistently and diligently add oil, drop by drop, to our spiritual lamps, doing these small and simple things, we can have our lamps 'trimmed and burning' with astonishing preparation." When we are consistent and diligent in living Christlike lives we become a light to others, shining examples in an ever-darkening world.

With our lamps burning brightly we are prepared to receive the blessings that will be poured out upon us.  The temple is a sacred place where we are blessed with inspiration and endowed with power.   Today I felt my light grow brighter as I united my faith with that of those around me. Today I was reminded of those blessings as I felt the windows of heaven open.

I echo Sister Burton's words, "May we prepare to worthily receive saving ordinances drop by drop and keep the associated covenants wholeheartedly." I promise that as we do so we will be armed with the Lord's power and we will be surrounded by His angels and His love.

Be a Light!

I got the privilege of helping out with the Super Saturday for the Phoenix Temple Cultural Celebration today. For those not familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, when we build a new temple, it is always a long-anticipated and celebrated event. The youth prepare for months, and the night before the dedication they put on a cultural celebration full of music and dance. The First Presidency of the church is there, and they are literally dancing for the Prophet of the Lord, praising God and worshipping Him.

Today was a sunny, warm day, and the kids were practicing and getting familiar with the field, for hours and hours. The people who have planned and taught and planned some more were out there with them, working their hearts out all day long. Some of the adults were setting up last night until after midnight. This truly is a labor of love.

I drove a vanful of teens, and after dropping them off went to my designated helping-out place. As I watched and, well, helped occasionally, I was struck by a few thoughts about life, talents, work, and yes, even writing. I do think about writing a lot--especially right now, during National Novel Writing Month.  I am sunburned and more than a little tired--not complaining, just explaining why this might seem a mite disjointed as I try to express what I'm feeling. Here are three things I remember:

1)Oh my goodness. I think I cried about 15 times today. Something like 5,000 kids on that field, sometimes together, sometimes in groups--and even as they were being teens, they were being AMAZING teens. You could feel their spirit--feel their light--even when they were being too loud to hear directions, or walking "left" instead of "stage left" (which in this case was actually right).  I was just honored to be in their presence.
                       **Takeaway from that--these kids weren't perfect, but their light SHONE through, and they weren't necessarily "trying" to have it shine. They have been becoming who they are their whole lives, and what they are, is enough. It's the same for all of us. We don't need to put forth this huge effort to show the world our light--in fact, we shouldn't be doing that. We should be improving ourselves, preparing ourselves, and then the light just shines. Who we are is enough.  Our light--our example--is a natural result of the progress we are making in becoming who God wants us to be.

2)The program had choreographed numbers, with people needing to be in a certain place at a certain time.  But, a lot of the time, the kids were not exactly where they were supposed to be. And it was O.K. I saw some weird holes in the lineups of kids where they didn't fill in the field evenly, and the people who were in charge of those things noticed them. I guarantee that the audience, President Monson, and the Lord, really are not going to see those little gaps. The effort doesn't have to be perfect in order to be acceptable to the Lord. The kids were doing their best and that was awesome!
                       **Takeaway: Well, just what I just said. Our efforts don't have to be perfect to be acceptable to the Lord. We just have to be doing our best.

3)Some of the people leading the kids were.... less nurturing, while others were amazing. The magic potion seemed to be that some people were very caught up in everything going smoothly, and others were okay with the gaps, people being a little late or early on their marks, or whatever the little foibles and perdiddles were that happened. With that many kids, it was inevitable that those things happen. It occurred to me that the kids may or may not remember the oopsies that happened here and there, but they WILL remember the feeling they got from the leaders.
                       **Takeaway:  Our own lives, efforts, and writing adventures will go much more smoothly if we can be okay with misadventures. In life, we don't know which twists, turns, and perdiddles are necessary to get us where Heavenly Father needs us to be. We will trip and fall, be late or early on our marks, and have our own "oops" moments. Those things are inevitable. Our lives can be happy in spite of those things, and maybe even because of them, depending upon OUR attitude in how we handle them.

So, I did not write a single word on my new NaNoWriMo novel today. I'll have to catch up next week. But I wouldn't have traded all 1,667 words of my daily goal for the experience of today, and the insights I received while being able to have some tiny little part in this wonderful celebration that our youth have prepared for the Lord.

PS:  DO NOT MISS THIS CULTURAL CELEBRATION!!!   You can find it online at 7 pm (Arizona time... is that Mountain now? Stupid Daylight Saving)..  www.abc15.com, or if you are local you can see on on ABC 15.2 (their "HD 2 channel).  Really. You will be uplifted.

Where Can I Turn For Peace?

Written by Ashley & Jessica

What an amazing conference this has been!  We are so blessed to have a prophet of God on the earth to speak to us and give us direction, as well as all of the other men and women called of God to teach and guide us. 

The other week I was able to attend the temple.  As I sat pondering and enjoying the spirit of peace that surrounded me I suddenly realized that there was no noise.  There were no cars honking, no people yelling, no machinery or construction noise.  You'd never guess I was sitting in the middle of Manhattan.  It was amazing to ponder what a blessing this oasis of peace was in the middles of all the chaos. 



In today's world it can seem hard at times to find a place of peace.  We live in a world where, in most cases, we are surrounded by a whirlwind of things to do and places to be.  We have been counseled to attend the temple as often as we can.  However, depending on where you live and what stage of life you are in, this can be difficult to do.  For those not living near a temple it probably doesn't happen as often as we'd like.  Some may not have the time or means.  It is for this reason that it becomes all the more important, nay, critical that we make our homes a Heaven on Earth.  In this tumultuous world it is necessary to have a sanctuary, a place we can go to recharge and strengthen our spirits and minds.  In order to make our homes a holy place where the Spirit can dwell we need to treat them as holy places.  We need to make them our fortresses and keep evil without our walls.  If we fail to treat our homes as a special and holy place our spiritual fortifications will crumble.  I believe all of us are capable of making our homes a place of peace.  This doesn't mean we have to have spotless homes that are perfectly organized, or expensive furnishings or massive chandeliers.  It simply means that we open our doors and hearts to the teachings and standards the Lord has given us and close them against the temptations and fiery darts of the adversary.  Let us all actively strive to make our homes a heaven on earth and welcome in the peace of our Heavenly Father.

The importance of the temple

Hi,

I have been trouble with blogger lately, which is why you haven't seen or heard from me much. I hope this goes through, as my last one didn't.

So my writing journey with the Lord, has had it's ups and downs. Whenever I am feeling my weakest, is just around the time I need to make another trip to the temple, for a recharge of my Spirit.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the temple! I have truly come to crave it and need to be there always. One of my goals is to become a temple worker, after my children have grown. I can't wait to be there all day! So you know why I love the temple so much? Do you know why I can't resist going again and again every single month?

Because I know I'll feel the Lord there. It is the one place on earth--the easiest place to find God. And I need him so much. It's my Spiritual fix, my high-- I need the peace the temple offers, the reassurance, the clearing of my mind, more than I need anything else.

Have you been to the temple in a while? Is your life in upheaval? Go. You will be blessed.