Achieving True Reverence
Filed under: Becoming More Christlike, Jesus Christ
Robert C. Oakes, who served as a member of the Seventy (a high level position in the Mormon Church) for many years
recently wrote about the subject of reverence, suggesting it is not just a topic for children. Reverence is an important part of worship for all followers of Christ.
When I teach young children, I often ask them what it means to be reverent. They normally respond, “Sit down and be quiet.” Teachers often tell children to be reverent when they really mean to tell them to behave, and so this is the definition most children have of the word. I follow up by asking them to listen to a story:
Susan is sitting in Primary (the children’s auxiliary in the Mormon Church) and is sitting very still. Her hands are in her lap, she isn’t talking, and she isn’t wiggling. She’s looking right at the teacher. Is she being reverent? The children say she is. Then I tell them there is more to the story. While she’s sitting still, not talking, not wiggling and looking at the teacher, she is thinking, “When I get home, I’m going to hit my brother. He was so mean to me this morning. I’m going to teach him a lesson.” I ask again, “Is Susan being reverent?” Even young children realize she is not being reverent, because although her body is doing the right thing, her mind is not.
I tell the children behavior is on the outside and reverence is on the inside. Then we sing a children’s song that emphasizes this message:
Rev’rence is more than just quietly sitting:
It’s thinking of Father above,
A feeling I get when I think of his blessings.
I’m rev’rent, for rev’rence is love. (Listen to Reverence is Love.)
Reverence is how we show our love for God and for Jesus Christ. Mormon churches have foyers meant for the inevitable socialization among a people who consider their congregation their second family. Once they enter the chapel or a classroom, they’re asked to stop socializing and to sit quietly, listening to the prelude music. Of course, that doesn’t always happen, but it’s the goal.
During the meeting, members remain quiet, listening to the speakers and doing whatever is needed to keep small children happy. In a Mormon church, even the tiniest child remains with his family during the main worship service, known as Sacrament Meeting. This allows children to be trained by their parents to be both reverent and well-behaved, and includes them in the spiritual life of the congregation.
True reverence, as mentioned above, is not just about sitting still and being quiet. While it’s certainly easier to feel the spirit when we’re well-behaved, our minds must also be focused on things of the spirit. As we walk through the chapel doors, we leave behind us the cares and thoughts of the world, and turn our full attention to God. In the quiet moments that are ours, we think of the Savior and His atoning sacrifice, and during the time people are speaking, we listen carefully and stay alert for promptings from the Holy Ghost as to how the speaker’s message can apply to us in our own lives.
This three hour focus each Sunday on the things of the spirit helps Mormons to move into the outside world renewed and ready to face the moral and secular challenges of everyday life. We feel ready to tackle life and the gospel with renewed strength and energy.
Of course, Church isn’t the only place reverence is needed. We can feel the spirit every moment of our lives if we work hard to do so. As we go about our weekday chores and tasks, we can surround ourselves with things that will help us keep the Holy Ghost near. Playing spiritual music, thinking about the gospel and how to apply it to each aspect of our lives, and reading appropriate books ensure the spirit will be present. Mormons are taught that when the Spirit flees, they must flee also, and the Spirit cannot be where there is sin. Mormons work to create an appropriate environment for themselves whenever possible, decorating their homes with spiritual things among the secular ones, playing appropriate music, interacting kindly to family members, and engaging in service and other appropriate activities.
They try to bring the gospel into their homes as much as possible. Each morning they have prayer and scripture study. They have a spiritually based family night once a week. They select other gospel-centered activities to do throughout the week, ensuring that their religion is not a three-hours-on-Sunday religion, but an all day, every day religion that impacts every moment of their lives.
There are times, of course, when we cannot control our environments, such as at work or school. However, we can choose how we interact with that environment. We do not need to participate in gossip or gripe sessions. When inappropriate music is playing, we can move to another room, encourage a change of music, or put on headphones where allowed. If all else fails, we can tune out or ask to be placed in a less offensive environment.
While we can’t always control the music or the language around us, we are always in full control of our own thoughts. We can fill our minds with religious music, spiritually uplifting thoughts, and a pleasant attitude. It’s what we do with what we can control that determines the presence of the spirit.
Elder Oaks explained, “As we study the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and gain an appreciation of the remarkable impact—both mortal and eternal—of His Atonement on our lives, we naturally experience the emotional responses of respect, love, and honor. Gospel obedience and Christian service then flow as appropriate expressions of these emotions. But without reverence, the expressions of respect, love, and honor are incomplete.
As we develop reverence for Jesus Christ, we are better able to pattern our lives after His perfect example. There are many facets to such reverence: faith that He lives, trust in His promised blessings, and obedience to gospel standards. But one of the most important facets is the feeling of our heart—the respect, love, and honor we feel toward Deity. We who respect, love, and honor the Lord will never take His name in vain and will be uncomfortable with demeaning or trivializing jokes about Him. Rather, we praise and revere our Heavenly Father and Him whom we worship as our Lord and our Savior.
The Lord gives clear direction regarding His expectation for reverence in Leviticus 19:30, where He states, “Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.” The respect we show for His temples and chapels is a reflection of the reverence for Him we feel in our hearts. Our degree of respect, love, and honor for the Lord is directly reflected in our reverence, as shown by our attitudes as well as by our decorum.” Robert C. Oaks, “Worship through Reverence,” Ensign, Dec 2009, 20–23
Importance of Temples
Filed under: Mormon Temples: Purposes and Promises, Purpose of Temples, Saving Ordinances, Temple Work, Temples
All through my life I’ve known the importance of temples. I’ve known they are necessary for us to know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going after this life, because the temple ritual is a review of God’s Plan of Salvation. Temples are also important to help family relationships extend beyond this life and last for eternity. With temples we can also make these blessings possible for our departed ancestors. These truths are taught to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the Mormons, from the time they are little and throughout the rest of their lives. I have a testimony of this but wondered why it was so difficult to attend the temple.
So often my good plans of temple attendance were derailed or sidetracked. Why was it that months passed between trips to the temple? Often at the end of the year I would look back and realize that I had only attended a handful of times. For awhile the nearest temple was in Dallas Texas, a five hour drive away. Then we received the wonderful announcement that we would have a temple in Oklahoma City in 2000. This cut our driving time to less than two hours but unfortunately my temple attendance did not improve.
This really started to bother me as I listened to lessons at church and heard talks in general conference reiterating the importance of temples. It was obvious that temples are important to the Lord and I wanted them to be important to me.
I came across the following words spoken at the funeral of Joseph Smith Sr., father of the prophet Joseph Smith Jr., the prophet of the restoration.
“To dwell in the house of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple, was his daily delight; and in it he enjoyed many blessings, and spent many hours in sweet communion with his Heavenly Father. He has trod its sacred aisles, solitary and alone from mankind, long before the king of day has gilded the eastern horizon; and he has uttered his aspirations within its walls, when nature has been asleep. In its holy enclosures have the visions of heaven been opened to his mind, and his soul has feasted on the riches of eternity.” (History of the Church 4:194)
Why weren’t my visits to the temple a “delight” and why hasn’t my “soul feasted on the riches of eternity”? I decided to take my desires to my Heavenly Father. I knew He would answer my prayers, but as a wise man once said, “You can’t steer a parked car.” I knew I needed to get to work and “must study it out in [my] mind” (Doctrine and Covenants 9:8). I needed to see what more I could learn about temples.
I decided to start learning about the temples of old. I read about the tabernacles that the Lord commanded the Israelites to build as they journeyed through the wilderness. I read about the Temple of Solomon in all of its glory. The Temple of Zerubbabel was next followed by the Temple of Herod visited by the Savior during his earthly ministry.
In the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ, near the beginning of its history, a prophet named Nephi built a temple “after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things”. (2 Nephi 5:16) Then I read in Mosiah about the great speech King Benjamin made from the temple in the land of Zarahemla (Mosiah 2-6). Of course, who could forget the climax of the Book of Mormon where the resurrected Savior visited the people who were gathered at the temple in the land Bountiful (3 Nephi 11-26)?
Moving my focus to the latter-days I learned about the commandments of the Lord “to build a house to me” (Doctrine and Covenants 124:33) and the intense struggles the early members of the Church had to fulfill that commandment.
It was evident that temples were central to the people of God in all ages. It seemed to me that there had to be additional benefits of temple attendance for the living—more than I currently understood.
A large piece of the puzzle fit into place as I read the words of George Q. Cannon at the Logan Temple cornerstone dedication:
“Every foundation stone that is laid for a Temple, and every Temple completed according to the order the Lord has revealed for his holy Priesthood, lessens the power of Satan on the earth, and increases the power of God and Godliness, moves the heavens in mighty power in our behalf, invokes and calls down upon us the blessings of the Eternal Gods, and those who reside in their presence” (Millennial Star, 12 Nov. 1877, p. 743).
Our loving prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910 – 2008), obviously understood this principle. Looking back to the October 1997 General Conference when President Hinckley announced the plan to build smaller temples around the world, there were 50 temples in operation. According to www.lds.org, there are currently 146 temples announced, under construction, or operating across the world. What an amazing and miraculous accomplishment in 12 short years!
I was beginning to understand. We live in a time that is becoming exponentially more evil. Heavenly Father knew this and instructed President Hinckley to build more temples. He almost tripled the number of temples in fact! I realized this was to provide the power and protection for us spiritually as well as lessen the Adversary’s affects and power on the earth.
As I continued my studies, I noticed three blessings of the temple that I had not noticed before: power, protection, and spiritual refinement.
John A. Widstoe taught that temple service not only strengthens us personally but affects the entire community. He said, “Men grow mighty under the results of temple service; … the community increases in power; until the devil has less influence than he ever had before” ("Temple Worship," The Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, Apr. 1921, pp. 51).
President Boyd K. Packer, the president of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles for the Church, explained why attendance can be so difficult at times when he said, “Temple work brings so much resistance because it is the source of so much spiritual power to the Latter-day Saints, and to the entire Church” (The Holy Temple, p. 178).
Continuing to teach about power, protection, and spiritual refinement, Pres. Packer stated:
“No work is more of a protection to this Church than temple work and the genealogical research which supports it. No work is more spiritually refining. No work we do gives us more power. No work requires a higher standard of righteousness.
Our labors in the temple cover us with a shield and a protection, both individually and as a people.
If we will accept the revelation concerning temple ordinance work, if we will enter into our covenants without reservation or apology, the Lord will protect us. We will receive inspiration sufficient for the challenges of life” (The Holy Temple, p. 265).
Also, President James E. Faust taught:
“We are bombarded on all sides by a vast number of messages we don’t want or need. More information is generated in a single day than we can absorb in a lifetime. To fully enjoy life, all of us must find our own breathing space and peace of mind. How can we do this? There is only one answer. We must rise above the evil that encroaches upon us. We must follow the counsel of the Lord, who said, “It is my will, that all they who call on my name, and worship me according to mine everlasting gospel, should gather together, and stand in holy places (Doctrine and Covenants 101:22)" (“Standing in Holy Places,” Ensign, May 2005, 62).
I know I am “bombarded on all sides” and I know I need a “shield and a protection”. I see the world around me and I know that we need to “lessen the power of Satan on the earth”. All that I hold dear depend on my ability to withstand the temptations of the world and endure to the end. I have often worried about how to best prepare my young children to succeed in this world. I know if they understand the power and protection the temple affords, they will be more apt to make temple worship a high priority.
I know a lifetime of study may not be enough to fully understand everything about the temple but now I understand enough to help me realize how important it is. We have many tools to help us on our journey and the temple is a very powerful one.
Now as I prepare myself to attend the temple I am filled with excitement. I eagerly mark our ward temple dates on my calendar. The temple has become a top priority for me and attendance has become regular. The old excuses and roadblocks melt away as my priorities shift and I can see Heavenly Father’s hand helping me accomplish my righteous desires. My time in the temple has become a “delight” and I am beginning to see the “riches of eternity”. I feel more help and guidance in all aspects of my life as I worthily and regularly attend the temple.
I know Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I know He loves me and wants me to succeed. I know the things I learn and the covenants I make in the temple will provide the power, protection, and spiritual refinement essential to “peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:23).
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Changing the Music in Your Home
Once we become aware of the power of music to influence our spirituality for good or bad, we often start to take inventory of the types of music in our homes. This leads to a need to remove some types of music and replace it with others. However, that can seem a bit overwhelming financially. How can we carry out the process of making our music pleasing to God?
The first step is to identify what music needs to leave. Frequently, we’ve paid little attention to the message our music is sending us. While we don’t have to restrict ourselves to religious music, we do have to be certain the music isn’t placing into our minds messages that counteract those God is placing in our minds through the spirit, and that our music isn’t chasing away the spirit. This means we’re going to have to listen to our music, paying attention to the words and the overall message, and also to how the music itself makes us feel. If the music is too hard-hitting, you may feel God’s Spirit leaving the room.
Depending on your media, you may be able to save specific songs that are fine, while deleting those that aren’t on any given piece of media. Otherwise, you’ll need to remove the entire CD or other media, so the songs that are inappropriate are gone.
If you have teenagers, you might offer them a budget you can afford to help them replace inappropriate music. You don’t have to replace everything at once. This can be a long-term project.
Of course, this leaves the family a bit short of music for a while. Fortunately, there are many free or inexpensive sources of music to help supplement the current collection. Radios carry music, although they may not be reliably safe and listeners may have to stay on guard and be ready to change the station. Many websites now allow you to download single songs inexpensively, so you can choose just the music that is appropriate. While it may not be the cheapest way to buy a complete CD, it is one that allows you to have good music, and avoid that which is inappropriate. Doing it this way also sends a message to the artist. If the morally clean songs sell better than the immoral ones, more appropriate music will get made.
Libraries often carry music that can be borrowed. This allows the family to have consistently changing music for variety. Family members can also trade with each other for a little more variety.
Some radio stations focus only on appropriate music. For instance, Brigham Young University, which is owned by the Mormons, has two stations, one for instrumental music, and one for other music and sermons. The music on these stations is spiritual in nature, and therefore morally clean.
Using morally clean radio stations and libraries allows you to find new artists who are more reliably moral than those you may have listened to in the past. It is helpful to discover artists you can trust to uphold your values, so you don’t have to carefully research each purchase, or find yourself the owner of something you don’t want to own. For instance, the Mormon family, the Five Browns, are popular with people of all faiths and are reliably safe.
The new year is a good time to set a music resolution—from here on out, only music you would play for the Savior will be welcome in your home.
The Battle Within
There is an old Cherokee tale that you may have heard before. It goes like this.
An elder cherokee was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."
The children thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old cherokee simply replied,"The one you feed."
This tale started a period of serious introspection. What things did I do for entertainment? What books, movies, music, and television did I enjoy and seek out? How did each affect my spirituality? I started to see that when I chose less than worthy material my spirituality declined and it was easier to make other poor choices. When I chose good wholesome entertainment my spirituality increased and it was easier to choose other uplifting entertainment.
However, there was always the constant pull from each direction and I felt like I was always moving. Unfortunately it wasn’t always in the direction I wanted to go.
It is much like navigating a hot air balloon. A balloon pilot can make horizontal movements by changing altitude. Wind blows in different directions at different altitudes. Balloon pilots need to make sure their balloons maintain the appropriate altitude or they will not arrive at their planned destination.
Hot air balloon navigation makes a great spiritual analogy. Hot air is needed to make the balloon rise much like prayer, reading the scriptures, and obeying the commandments make our spirituality rise. No heat, inaction and spiritual lethargy, makes us sink. If you sink you will be blown in a different direction and arrive at the wrong destination. If you sink too far you are in danger of hitting something and being injured or destroyed.
As I prayed and contemplated this further I came across an address by Melvin J. Ballard (1873-1939), an apostle for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the Mormons. He gave the address in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City Utah on May 5, 1928.
"all the assaults that the enemy of our souls will make to capture us will be through the flesh… The approach he makes to us will be through the lusts, the appetites, the ambitions of the flesh. All the help that comes to us from the Lord to aid us in this struggle will come to us through the spirit that dwells within this mortal body. So these two mighty forces are operating upon us through these two channels. …
But you never can tell how the battle is going to go unless you are taking good care of the spirit. We know that unless one takes proper food and exercise, speaking physically, there is no growth. If you would have a strong spirit which has dominance over the body, you must see to it that your spirit receives spiritual food and spiritual exercise." (Melvin J. Ballard, “Struggle for the Soul,” New Era, Mar 1984, 32)
The analogy of feeding your spirit is mentioned several times in the scriptures. In the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, there is a prophet named Jacob. He plead with his people to feed their spirits rather than the lusts of the flesh.
"Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness. " (2 Nephi 9:51)
My goal is to feed my spirit since that is the force I want to win. With my spirit strong I can withstand the temptations that are constantly before all of us. With a strong spirit I will reach the desired destination which is to return to our loving Heavenly Father.
How do the choices you make affect your spirituality?