CLEAVE UNTO YOUR COVENANTS
MARCH 19, 2017
Parley’s 4th Ward Conference
One of my simple pleasures is walking along ocean beaches hunting for sea glass. Sea glass begins as normal shards of broken glass that are then persistently tumbled, ground and polished until the sharp edges are smoothed and rounded. Nature takes something broken and turns it into something beautiful. Some people consider sea glass trash, and to others it is more precious than gemstones. I brought with me my collection – my children call me The Treasure Hunter – some of my pieces are sharp and broken and others are smooth, beautiful and translucent.
I have been thinking a lot lately about my true life’s treasures and I would like to share with you today some thoughts about what is most precious to me.
For the last seven years I have had the opportunity and blessing of serving in the Salt Lake Temple. Soon after our son departed to serve his mission, the Temple President’s secretary left several messages for my husband and me to come in for an interview. We were both reluctant, but decided that we had better respond. We accepted and were set apart and given wonderful blessings and promised that our service would greatly bless and strengthen our family. Truly, temple service helped prepare us and provided an anchor for challenges that were to come. In many ways, our rough edges were being smoothed and polished by a merciful and loving God.
One of the first weeks I was there, Sister Joan Child, the temple matron shared an insight during prayer meeting. I felt the Spirit so strongly and knew the Lord was speaking to me personally. She read from DC 25 –
“Hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God, while I speak unto you, Emma Smith, my daughter…
Behold, thy sins are forgiven thee and thou art an elect lady whom I have called.”
Sister Child told us that the Lord is also speaking to each of us, to me and to you. He tells us who we are – His Daughters – Elect Ladies – he loves and values us – and gives us the blessing of forgiveness and a calling and a true identity, His Daughter, A Daughter of God.
The Lord then counsels:
“Thou shalt lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better.”
“Wherefore, lift up thy heart and rejoice, and cleave unto the covenants which thou hast made.”
Truly the Temple and the Covenants I have made with the Lord are the treasures of my life.
When we come to the Lord’s house – he washes us clean and forgives us. He anoints and blesses us. We are clothed and taught the wonderful Plan of Salvation. We are guided and given Power and the Lord reveals himself to us.
In DC 88:68 we discover a glorious promise:
Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see Him, for He will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in His own time, and in His own way, according to His own will.
I love the story of Anna in the New Testament.
Luke tells us that Anna was a prophetess. She had been a widow for many years and served patiently and diligently in the temple night and day, Because of her great faith, service and sacrifice, at the age of 84, Anna was blessed to see the Christ Child.
Simeon was also blessed to see Jesus:
There was also a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
And he came by the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,
Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. Luke 2:25-35
My mother-in-law, Alice Burbidge passed away in January at the age of 91. She had been a widow for nearly 30 years. She was generous and worked hard all her life. She raised six great children who gave beautiful tributes to their faithful mother. At the close of the funeral service, her bishop spoke and said he had recently visited Alice. Her last request was that he check to make sure her temple recommend was current. She had not been able to attend for many years but her covenants were always in her heart. Alice’s temple sealing to her husband and children were her treasures. The things of this world were no longer important. She was sanctified and ready to meet her Savior.
Sarah Rich was a righteous woman living in Nauvoo who was called to serve in the temple prior to the Saints being expelled from the city. These are her words about the blessings of temple covenants:
“Many were the blessings we had received in the House of the Lord, which has caused us joy and comfort in the midst of all our sorrows and enabled us to have faith in god, knowing He would guide us and sustain us in the unknown journey that lay before us.”
During the 20 years my daughter Holly has been married, she has lived away from home. She said one of the things she misses most is coming home for Sunday dinner; feeling the comfort, peace and the love of family. She has been grateful that in each city she has lived, San Francisco, Denver, New York and Dallas, there has been a temple -The House of the Lord; a home away from home, where she can go to feel the warmth, welcome and love of our Savior and Heavenly Father, to feel the comforts of home. We, also, are very blessed to have our beautiful pioneer Salt Lake Temple so near where we can also be welcomed and truly feel at home - blessed and strengthened in the Lord's Holy House.
Every temple experience gives us another chance to discover the truth about who we are, about our sojourn on earth and how we can change and become more like our Savior, polished and perfected. We can feel at home, strengthened, fed and renewed.
In the temple we are endowed with power, power to meet every challenge – power to know which decision to make – power to guide our families.
To partake of and receive temple blessings the Lord requires faithfulness, commitment and sacrifice. He requires surrendering our will to His - a contrite and broken heart.
Sister Sheri Dew said:
We covenant to remember Him. What one thing would you be willing to give up, starting today, to put the Savior even more at the center of your life? What one thing would you be willing to do, starting today, to unlock more of His power? The Savior’s grace is what will enable us to do what He is counting on us to do in the twilight of this great culminating gospel dispensation.”
The spirit will whisper to each of us how we can better remember our Savior and I would suggest that one of the ways is regularly going to His House – the House of the Lord – there you will find answers, guidance, comfort and peace. “Lay aside the things of this world and seek for the things of a better….Lift up your heart and rejoice, Cleave to the covenants you have made.”
Elder Renlund spoke at the Temple Devotional in November and explained that the Temple Seals and Heals. He quoted from Ezekial chapter 47 -describing waters flowing out from the temple,bringing life and healing even to the Dead Sea. He promised that the temple has the Power not only to Seal but Heal our Families. What a treasured blessing. For that I am most grateful.
Recently, I attended the Newport Beach Temple and prayed beforehand, the Lord would comfort and bless me and teach me something I needed to know. I have been praying to know how help a treasured, beloved child and bring peace to my heart. I left the temple – feeling happy but had not received the answer for which I was searching. I drove to my daughter Jessica’s home a short distance away, and as I was holding my newborn granddaughter, Pearl Marguerite, the Spirit whispered to my heart and this scripture came to mind:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to bind up the broken-hearted…
To appoint unto them that mourn – beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning.” Isaiah 61:1,3
As I looked at that perfect, pure, beautiful baby, I realized, “here is my beauty for ashes, my oil of joy for mourning.” I have been so very blessed – I am so very grateful and realized I need to focus on my joys not my sorrow. I have faith that the temple has power to Seal and Heal and that someday our family and yours will receive that promised blessing.
I testify that as we faithfully go to the Temple, the Lord will answer our prayers. He shows us His wounds and heals ours. He binds up the broken-hearted - Just as shards of broken glass are tumbled and polished into something beautiful, He will give beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning.
In a recent BYU Devotional, Casey Bud explained:
When we turn our broken pieces over to the Savior, our gaps are filled with Him – with His perfection – and we are made complete; we are finished by the Great Creator through the restorative power of “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). We come to know the Savior not just by recognizing and reverencing His scars, but by recognizing and reverencing our own. We are bound to the Savior through our mutual scars, “and with His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
It is my prayer that the Temple can be a beacon of strength and an anchor in our lives and we can feel at home there. I pray we can “Lift up our hearts and rejoice and cleave to the covenants we have made - that our rough and broken edges can be polished and made beautiful through the Atonement of
Jesus Christ.
