Tour Your Own Home

I really enjoyed Elder Gary E. Stevenson's talk this past General Conference. He spoke on the importance of temples, and how we need to strive to make our homes compare in sacredness. He stated the following:

Recently, in a stake conference, all present were invited by the visiting authority, Elder Glen Jenson, an Area Seventy, to take a virtual tour of their homes using their spiritual eyes. I would like to invite each of you to do this also. Wherever your home may be and whatever its configuration, the application of eternal gospel principles within its walls is universal. Let’s begin. Imagine that you are opening your front door and walking inside your home. What do you see, and how do you feel? Is it a place of love, peace, and refuge from the world, as is the temple? Is it clean and orderly? As you walk through the rooms of your home, do you see uplifting images which include appropriate pictures of the temple and the Savior? Is your bedroom or sleeping area a place for personal prayer? Is your gathering area or kitchen a place where food is prepared and enjoyed together, allowing uplifting conversation and family time? Are scriptures found in a room where the family can study, pray, and learn together? Can you find your personal gospel study space? Does the music you hear or the entertainment you see, online or otherwise, offend the Spirit? Is the conversation uplifting and without contention? That concludes our tour. Perhaps you, as I, found a few spots that need some “home improvement”—hopefully not an “extreme home makeover.”

How does your home do with this "spiritual tour"? There are a few things my wife and I need to tweak... but all in all, we're trying hard and doing pretty well!
I really need to make the temple a bigger part of my life-- of my routine. By so doing, I will be blessed with a greater measure of the Spirit of the Lord, and me and my family will also be blessed with protection-- temporal and spiritual.

Christofferson on Covenants

Last conference Elder D. Todd Christofferson gave a powerful talk on covenants. I just read over it, and wow! It really helped me quite a bit. I've been struggling a bit lately with doing my very best-- I feel like I've become a bit complacent. But this talk gave me quite the lift:

We need strong Christians who can persevere against hardship, who can sustain hope through tragedy, who can lift others by their example and their compassion, and who can consistently overcome temptations. We need strong Christians who can make important things happen by their faith and who can defend the truth of Jesus Christ against moral relativism and militant atheism.

In the covenant path we find a steady supply of gifts and help. "Charity never faileth" (1 Corinthians 13:8; Moroni 7:46), love begets love, compassion begets compassion, virtue begets virtue, commitment begets loyalty, and service begets joy. We are part of a covenant people, a community of Saints who encourage, sustain, and minister to one another. As Nephi explained, "And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them" (1 Nephi 17:3).

Divine covenants make strong Christians. I urge each one to qualify for and receive all the priesthood ordinances you can and then faithfully keep the promises you have made by covenant. In times of distress, let your covenants be paramount and let your obedience be exact. Then you can ask in faith, nothing wavering, according to your need, and God will answer. He will sustain you as you work and watch. In His own time and way He will stretch forth his hand to you, saying, "Here am I."

I need to go to the temple MUCH more. I need to hold ever more tightly to my covenants, nothing wavering (especially when times get tough). Then and only then will I qualify for the Lord's aid and the presence of the Holy Ghost. Then and only then will I be happy.