The temple being a small step

[Guest Alana]

When I was preparing to go to the temple for the first time, my friend told me 'going to the temple is actually just an other small step, you're not really changing what you're already doing, you're just promising to keep doing it.'

What do you think of the temple as being a 'small step'? I know that it's a big deal as far as a necessary step, but in a lot of ways, I agree with the small step idea. What do you think?

Oh, and I don't say this to minimize the sacredness or importance of it, of course.

[Dravin]

I agree with it being a small step as far as how you are living your life if you are an active and faithful member. It's not small as in insignificant, just small as in it isn't a radical departure from what you've already agreed to live.

[Hemidakota]

When I was preparing to go to the temple for the first time, my friend told me 'going to the temple is actually just an other small step, you're not really changing what you're already doing, you're just promising to keep doing it.'

What do you think of the temple as being a 'small step'? I know that it's a big deal as far as a necessary step, but in a lot of ways, I agree with the small step idea. What do you think?

Oh, and I don't say this to minimize the sacredness or importance of it, of course.

Calling it a small, medium, or large step, is one way of describing the eternal progression. But you are right. If you are truly living gospel now, it will not be any harder than to walk the temple path.

Another great analogy to use is Jacob's ladder in the Old Testament. A person takes one rung at a time up the ladder until you finally reach the top step - which is the highest state in the Celestial Kingdom.

Ensure when you pass through the temple portal doors at anytime, which house, you are in and easily be justified by the Lord in being there. If you are living the gospel principle, every aspect of your life, is one who can be declared by the Lord Himself to you, if standing at the door “…welcome my servant and my friend.”

Congrats on your next step in your progression and may the Lord bless you in reaching your eternal quest.

[Guest Alana]

thanks for the comments! I'm giving a talk about the temple (breath, Alana, breath) and I want to incorporate this idea of a 'small step' but I want to make sure it resonates with people other than myself. It was helpful to me both before and after going to the temple. Made things less overwhelming, especially when they didn't need to be overwhelming.

[Hemidakota]

Excellent point Alana.

[Wingnut]

thanks for the comments! I'm giving a talk about the temple (breath, Alana, breath) and I want to incorporate this idea of a 'small step' but I want to make sure it resonates with people other than myself. It was helpful to me both before and after going to the temple. Made things less overwhelming, especially when they didn't need to be overwhelming.

In that context, I don't think I would refer to it as a "small" step, but calling it a step would be fine. Someone once told me (before I'd ever gone to the temple) that the covenants we make in the temple are really no different than those we make at baptism. They're a little more specific and a little more binding, but basically, they're all things we do and should be doing anyway.

[HiJolly]

I'm not sure I can think of the anointing as a 'small' step. Maybe.

I think something really special aside from the covenants are the instructions. Instructions that can take a very long time to understand. Certainly, the treasures of instruction are an almost limitless series of comprehensions that can come to us if we seek understanding.

For example, where do we hear teachings of men, mingled with scripture? Who are taught those things? Why do we accept them? The reality of it was breath-taking for me, when it came to me. Yet it when I first heard it, I thought I knew what it meant. In retrospect that was very little understanding indeed.

HiJolly

[Hemidakota]

Using Hijolly remarks; it reminds me of what the Lord taught the Nephites after His arrival:

Nephites - "What must we do?"

Notice the the Savior tells the Nephites five simple steps to do:

"Therefore, [1] go ye unto your homes, and [2] ponder upon the things which I have said, and [3] ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand, and [4] prepare your minds for the morrow, and [5] I come unto you again." (See 3 Nephi 17:3.)

If we do not understand all we see and hear in the temple, we must not be fearful, guilty, or apathetic. We must go home, ponder, pray, prepare, and then return. Eventually, the Spirit will be a guide in opening one's understanding.

[WmLee]

I will try to think of the ordinances, the covenants that we make at the altar as a small step . . . but to honest with you, I think everyone who is or has prepared to go to the temple has felt the work from the destroyer increase greatly as that small step drew closer.

I agree and I like the concept, a small step WHEN you are already living the life asked of to attend. But it is such a big step, to stand before God, angels and witness’s and make such a covenant, to live your life as our Savior has asked us to live, is such a giant step! Yes, a very small step when you look at what is asked of us to enter the temple. Such a giant step when you are at the altar making promises to your Father in Heaven to KEEP what you have worked so hard to chance, the lifestyle you have chosen to abide by . . . . .

And it must be a giant step if Satan works so hard to keep us from entering and works so hard to keep us from returning.

But I like your thoughts here!!

[JudoMinja]

In support of the "small" step, I was told in temple prep class that the making of temple covenants sets a MINIMUM standard for how we should be living. It draws a line in much the same way any of our other standards draw a line, letting us know what is expected of us at the VERY LEAST.

Living up to our temple covenants is certainly no easy task, what with temptations running rampant through the world, but there is MORE for us to do. So often I have heard of enduring in the sense that there isn't really anything left to do but keep trudging along keeping our covenants. However, to really endure means to continue seeking righteousness- continuing to IMPROVE, continuing to strive for something GREATER than our current state. When we make our temple covenants we have met the lowest bar required of us.

In much the same way the Israelites were not given any further commandments than those they received because the Lord did not want them to be commanded in all things, we have not been given any specifics beyond our temple covenants. The Lord wants us to continue to seek Him out and strive for perfection, but he is not going to command us or even coax us to do so. It must be done of our own free will.

Yes, our temple covenants are important, sacred, special, huge... but in the grand scheme of things, there is much more even beyond this. It is a "small" step, but one of the greatest- as it sets us on the correct path and introduces us to the perfect environment for receiving personal revelation and guidance on how to continue forward.