Something very exciting just happened recently. The dedication of the Provo City Center Temple. Matthew and I were able to attend the 3:00pm session and it was so peaceful, and I was able to really feel the spirit of the Lord there. The talks given were amazing! So much that I was able to absorb and take into my heart to help restore my resolve and keep me going in this crazy thing we call life. It was nice to feel the peace and quiet, and feel the presence of the Lord in His Holy House.
There was something I got to thinking about while I was in there. We were there about 30 minutes early, and we were sitting in the chapel of our ward building and waiting for everything to start. As we sat there, there were scenes of other temples with music playing. It got me thinking about how much work really goes into making a temple. It's not just the plans for the blueprints and things like that, but of the certain colors used, the upholstry, the scenes painted on the walls, the wood work, and on an on. There are so many details and each one is painstakingly picked out and put up. I can't even imagine how hard it must be to do such a thing. But, the temple always has this beauty, different than you will find in any other building in the world. It also matches perfectly the area and history of where it is built. The inside of the Provo City Center Temple is perfectly executed to maintain the feel of the pioneers who originally built the Tabernacle, and it feels very much like the area here in Provo. It has a strange feeling of the Lord's house and home at the same time. It's just an amazing feeling.
I started thinking about that scripture that reads, "know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" In Primary, in Young Women's, and in Relief Society I will always remember us talking about how our bodies are temples, and that the Lord wouldn't want us to do anything to defile them. I then thought of how carefully everything is picked out for the temples we visit, and if that is true, I'm sure that Heavenly Father picked out everything He put inside of us just as carefully. There are things that are naturally a part of us, things that every person has. We all have the light of Christ, we all have the ability to love, and laugh and feel emotions of all kinds. We have been decorated with things on the outside. I have brown hair, and fair skin that is sometimes too dry and sometimes too greasy. I have things I like about how I look and things I don't like about it as well. There are, likewise, things that I have on the inside of me that I like and things that I don't. I get after myself for the failings that I have, and I am trying hard to use the talents and the spiritual gifts that the Lord specifically blessed me with. How often do we try to say to ourselves that we aren't as good as so-and-so because they have a better life than we do? They have a better car, are better looking, maybe even sometimes we feel that way about their spiritual gifts. We all wish we could be like the general authorities of the church, and that they must be so very good and they can see so much. They are human as well. They were all blessed with things, from the Lord, and decorated by the Lord, with the things that would compliment who they are and get them where they need to go in this life. They are blessed with the things they need, and they are working hard to keep those things in line with the Lord's teachings, in order to reach the people and fulfill the purpose the Lord has for them on this earth. I believe it is the same for all of us. The gifts we all have are amazing, and unique, and there isn't one that the Lord will treasure above the others. He needs us all to believe in ourselves, and be doing the best we can with what He so lovingly gave us. The talents, the emotions, the things that are just a part of who we are. None of us are alike, and that is a VERY good thing. We don't need to be like someone else to be happy and to enjoy what we have been given. We should also rejoice in the fact that there are people out there to have gifts to help us with our failings. We are all there to help lift each other up and balance each other out. Maybe my weakness is my husbands strength, and that's why he has it. He is there to help me, and maybe there is something about me that no one else can use like I can, and I need to develop it and use it to help those who are struggling with those things. Instead of always being in competition with each other, couldn't we all learn to love and appreciate everyone's talents and gifts? We could boost each other and lift everyone instead of people always feeling they are lesser and aren't worth anything, because that simply is NOT true. God made us, and He loves us. He would NEVER want us to feel that we aren't worth anything. I have been thinking about the things I was blessed with, and rather than see what other people have that is "better" than me, I think I will start to focus on how to develop the spiritual gifts and talents that I have to uplift and help those around me. I need to lose that competetive side, and I need to see more in me. I need to see myself through "heaven's eyes". And more importantly, I need to see everyone else and their talents and gifts through heavens eyes. No need to be sad about who or what we are. What we are my friends, are children of God, and He loves us, and He was very careful about the things that we came down here with. He will help us, and He has put others here, everyone in fact, with their different kinds of beauty to help us get through this life. "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you". Let's all try to help those who don't feel they have these beautiful insides, like the temple, to see the beauty inside of themselves. It's hard sometimes, but with the Lords help all things are possible.
We all are the Lord's temples! Let us shine as a beacon for the world!
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