A House of God

This month the children (ages 3-11) at church are focusing on the theme, "The Temple is a House of God."  Sophie has pretty much memorized, "Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally." from The Family: A Proclamation to the World.  We explain difficult vocabulary to her and talk to our kids about how we love to be in the temple, how we were married in the temple, and that we need to be worthy to enter the temple.  She often states how she want to go to the temple too.  So we planned a Family Home Evening on this past Tuesday evening to do just that.

If you're wondering "What's with Mormons and temples anyway?" -- there is a brief, accurate explanation here.

See our sweet, dear children on the temple grounds.  They were so sensitive to the Holy Spirit...

Okay, okay! So they were actually squabbling with each other a bit!  So it's a good thing that God loves children because sometimes I think they can be down right irritating.  But we move on.  They quickly got it together with a touch of parent guided distraction and enjoyed walking the grounds fairly quietly, asking questions, and listening to our brief and simple answers.

We even got permission to let them come into the foyer so they could see the beauty there, feel the Spirit, and see our Savior in several pieces of art.  We showed them the recommend desk and our recommends.  We told them that mommy and daddy had to be living a good life in accordance with the gospel to enter.  If we made "bad choices" we would have to get things right before getting to go again.

It was a simple, good experience for the kids and for us as parents--not only to teach our kids but also remind ourselves of the significance of the temple and family in God's plan.