A New Meaning For the Word Temple

My youngest son, who is almost three years old, loves to use the word temple. Sometimes he uses it in a context that seems similar to what we would expect, like when he builds a tower with blocks and calls it a temple. But other times he uses it just to express a quantity that is large. For example, the other day I was giving him butter on some plate of food and he didn’t appreciate that the quantity was not small, so he protested, “No, temple!” By that he meant he wanted a lot of butter. Or sometimes when I give him a bowl of cereal, if it is not overflowing out the sides he similarly protests, “No, want temple!” For him the word temple is an expression to mean lots or large or full or tall. When he tells me that he wants temple, he means that he wants a lot more!

                As I have considered his understanding of the word, I realize that perhaps there is a lesson in it about how the temple experience should be for us. When we go to the temple we seek to be filled with the Spirit as we commune with the Lord in this most holy of places. This is consistent with the description John gave in his revelation of the temple: “And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power” (Revelation 15:8). The Spirit fills each temple, and if we come with our spirits ready to partake of His glory, we can likewise be filled. We want to feel His Spirit a lot, just like my son wants his food in large “temple” quantities. The temple is also a house filled with divine purposes: “A house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of glory and of God, even [the Lord’s] house.” It is a house in which we can find faith, commune through prayer, feel the glory of God, and be in His presence. Whatever our need in the moment, whatever our struggles or pains, we can find answers and help in His house. It is filled with answers and with power to help us. As Joseph prayed in the Kirtland Temple: “And we ask thee, Holy Father, that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:16, 22). The temple is the greatest source that we have to access the power of the Savior Jesus Christ in all our struggles. We may at times feel to protest to the Lord that we need a lot of help, like my son declares to me that he needs a lot of food; surely at the temple is the best place to receive that large quantity of help where His power is felt more fully and in abundance. 

                I anxiously await the day that we can all return in full to the temples to feel of that Spirit and commune with Him. We are given this glorious promise of the Lord about His house: “inasmuch as my people build a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled, my glory shall rest upon it; Yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart that shall come into it shall see God” (Doctrine and Covenants 97:15-16). Surely if we prepare spiritually, seeking to stay pure before Him, it will be a glorious day when we can return to the temples unrestricted and be filled with the glory of His house. And when that time comes, I hope I will remember like my son has taught me, not to seek after just a little bit of temple time but to strive to have “temple” temple experiences where I go often and with the Spirit of the Lord in abundance.