Many of my LDS friends will have already read this quote or seen the video I am sharing here today. But I wanted to write, for just a moment, for my family.
I love my brothers and my sister. I wish we were closer. I wish I could sit down with them and share my thoughts and feelings about the things that are most sacred to me. I suspect it may be possible that some of my family will watch with interest as the hoopla over the LDS temple unfolds.
I hope that they might understand that while television shows are web sites might try to portray what goes on in the temple, they cannot adequately show my feelings about the importance of what goes on there.
Hugh Nibley wrote, in his book "The Temple and the Cosmos," p. 64:
"Even though everyone may discover what goes on in the temple, and many have already revealed it, the important thing is that I do not reveal these things; they must remain sacred to me. I must preserve a zone of sanctity which cannot be violated whether or not anyone else in the room has the remotest idea what the situation really is.... No matter what happens, it will, then, always remain secret; only I know exactly the weight and force
of the covenants I have made--I and the Lord with whom I have made them--unless I choose to reveal them. If I do not, then they are secret and sacred no matter what others may say or do. Anyone who would reveal these things has not understood them, and therefore that person has not given them away. You cannot reveal what you do not know!"
I hope that my friends or family, if they have questions about the temple or the Mormon religion, that they will come to me, that they would ask me about such things, rather than rely on the sensationalist media.
Here's a video the Church has prepared about why Mormons build temples.
I go to the temple because for me it is like climbing a mountain, as Moses did in days of old, to be closer to my God. There, I am removed from the world--its cares, its sorrows, its day-to-day stresses. I go there because I love my Heavenly Father, and I want to hear His voice. Sometimes I need to escape the din of my regular life so I can listen more carefully. The temple, like that ancient mountain-top, is where I am sure to hear Him.
