Covenants and Sacrifice

Recently Elder Bednar gave a devotional address at BYU entitled As Long as the World Shall Stand. He told an amazing story about the temporary closure of a temple and what the workers in that temple did in preparation. He recounted, “On November 10, 2020, government officials in a large jurisdiction announced that religious organizations should suspend all public gatherings and meetings. These restrictions were intended to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and would be in effect for a minimum of three weeks—and likely longer. The announcement included a three-day warning that all operations should cease by midnight on Friday, November 13…. Temple leaders and workers in one temple prayed earnestly for direction, counseled together, and sought inspiration from heaven. Answers came. The decision was made to keep the temple open around the clock on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to accommodate as many patrons as possible. The doors of the temple would remain open, and the lights would not be turned off until midnight on Friday, the 13th of November.” What followed was a show of incredible devotion by temple workers and patrons who, like in 1846 worked day and night in the temple to allow as many of the Saints as possible to receive their temple endowment. Elder Bednar recounted multiple miracles associated with this herculean effort on the part of the temple workers to organize this three-day blitz to get as many people as possible to the temple. He testified that miracles do indeed happen in our day as they did in days past for faithful Saints.

            As I consider this experience, I can’t help but wonder if this kind of effort and sacrifice associated with the temple will not be more and more common in the future as persecution increases and the tumultuous events of the last days continue to happen. This show of sacrifice reminds me of the Lord’s declaration about who is acceptable to Him: “Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me” (Doctrine and Covenants 97:8). We must observe our covenants, especially those of the temple, by sacrifice, and it takes sacrifice even to make those covenants. President Monson taught that sacrifice will always be a part of temple work: “Some degree of sacrifice has ever been associated with temple building and with temple attendance. Countless are those who have labored and struggled in order to obtain for themselves and for their families the blessings which are found in the temples of God…. Those who understand the eternal blessings which come from the temple know that no sacrifice is too great, no price too heavy, no struggle too difficult in order to receive those blessings.” For me one of the questions that this story by Elder Bednar told invites us to consider is what sacrifices are we willing to make and keep the covenants of the house of the Lord and provide them for others. When temples are ultimately opened again for us to freely perform ordinance work for the living and the dead, surely we can experience the miracles of the Lord’s house is we will similarly sacrifice to be there. We may not have to go in the middle of the night, but surely our attendance is always contingent upon sacrificing some kind of worldly concern. We can show the Lord like these faithful Saints that we will observe our covenants by sacrifice and exclaim with the psalmist: “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalm 84:10).