Last weekend, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) released a special four-minute video about temple clothing. This short video was the culmination of prayer and pondering over time. Watching this video is important to myself and many other Church members (15 million) because of the misunderstanding of those not of our faith.
As the video explains, many different religions have many different symbols and clothing requirements which help devote themselves to God. As it is with LDS Church members, we have our sacred temple garments worn under our regular clothes and the sacred temple clothes we wear on top of regular clothes after we enter inside the temple.
As with all religions, we should support each other in our worship and sacred ceremonies. Not many sects are exempt from this kind of worship as many religions participate in sacred observances.
As the world seems to turn itself away from God, there are still those who are devoted to deep religious convictions which contribute to a happy, fulfilling life. With those of the LDS faith, we feel the importance of strengthening our families and linking ourselves to those who came before us as well as devoting ourselves in emulating the Lord, Jesus Christ. All of these ideals are important to temple worship.
Children learn from parent’s example and a good way to teach religious reverence to children is to talk about what other religions practice without prejudice. Teaching a history/writing class at a local private religious co-op, I had the opportunity to discuss religion with my class of 14 teens.
Their history book gave an overview of Mormonism or the practice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) which was very much untrue. The initial thought they vocalized was “Mormons are weird”. I don’t think they knew I was a member of the LDS Church but I went on to explain what the “Mormons” believe and taught a very simple version of the Plan of Salvation to clear up any misinformation from their history book.
From the beginning of my teaching with this organization, I had already decided I would not push my religious beliefs on any of the families there as we (my sons and I) are the only members of the LDS Church in the whole group of 50 families. We had been attending for 5 years now and, so far so good, we all get along and there is no religion bashing. Then that lesson came up in the history book and I had to squelch the untruths the book had written about Mormons.
I explained all about the Book of Mormon, the three degrees of glory and the belief that we lived in heaven before we lived on earth. This was against my better judgment as I was afraid it would get out of hand and we would be kicked out of the co-op. But they listened and I felt confident all was well with the class in their understanding.
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Many people who hear of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a misunderstanding of our religious convictions with our desire to worship and make covenants in sacred places known as temples. We aren’t weird or strange. We would like the chance to help others understand us better. We just want the opportunity in our devotions to God to worship each week and to attend the temple without mocking. All religious beliefs deserve this respect. Most of us live good honorable lives because of the promises we make in the temple, as other religions proclaim their devotion through their own special clothing. It is the same with members of the LDS Church.
As time moves forward, this video will be watched by many and a better understanding will develop by those who once thought we are weird. To many members of the LDS Church, this will be a blessing and a great comfort. Hopefully this better understanding will happen soon.
Valerie Steimle has been writing as a family advocate for over 25 years. As a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she promotes Christian living in her writings and is the mother of nine children and grandmother to twelve. Mrs. Steimle authored six books and is a contributing writer to several online websites. To her, time is the most precious commodity we have and knows we should spend it wisely.
To read more of Valerie's work, visit her at her website, The Blessings of Family Life.
