The Temple, a Lighthouse

When I was about 10 years of age, my parents began sending me to Salt Lake City for summers filled with memories of my grandmother.  She would make sure that when I returned each August, to my everyday life, that my mind and heart were filled with the thoughts of new places I'd seen, new people I'd met, and new food that I had tasted throughout the Salt Lake valley.  I remember homemade summer dinners each evening on her back porch, and reminiscing about the adventures we had shared together that day while watching the sun disappear into the waters of the Great Salt Lake.  Soon after, the crickets would start their nightly songs and I new it was time for my grandmother and I to retire to the safety of a warm bed and the laughter and glow of Johnny Carson in the background.

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One of my favorite places that I can remember visiting was the Salt Lake City Temple.  I loved walking the grounds and looking at all the flowers.  Everyone was so friendly, smiling, and loving there.  I would listen to the missionaries there on temple square, and no matter how many times I had heard the story of that temple and how it came to be, I never grew tired of listening to it.  Everything was so beautiful there, that I remember imagining that if Christ, himself, had ever decided to come to earth, that those temple grounds would have to be the place that he would choose to visit first.  I new from the first moment I saw that beautiful "White Castle", that that was exactly where I would go to be married one day.  Which seemed a far cry from reality seeing as though I lived in Arizona many miles away and my path, at the time,  was winding far from the Church and it's teachings.

As I grew closer to my teenage years, I still took some time to visit Grandma and the Salt Lake valley, though the time was seeming less and less.  As I visited that Temple in that time, my life was trailing further and further down a path I had little anticipated.  Those many months I'd spent away from this valley were definitely taking its tole on my personal and spiritual well being, my self-worth.   As I stared up at that Temple now, my thoughts turned to my childhood goal, and I felt very little like the kind of person that the doors of this castle would be open to.  Why would I have made up such a silly childhood dream?  Why, through it all, has that Salt Lake City Temple always lingered in my thoughts?  If I don't feel worth it, than why am I still longing?   My answer came...... no more than a year down the road.

My father decided to move our family to St. George, Utah.  No discussion.  I was devastated.  At the time, this was a huge shock to my teenage mind and I defiantly left, leaving my whole world behind me, or so I thought.  Not even 8 months later, I met the love of my life.  I knew, from the moment I saw him, that I would be looking into that face for an Eternity.  I was so thankful to God and to his family, for raising him to be the exact, amazing person that I needed in my life, to turn my childhood dreams into a reality.  We were married and sealed in the fall of 1997...... in the Salt Lake City Temple.

17 years and 4 children later, and I refer to the Temple as a lighthouse.  A lighthouse, whose light was bright enough, for even me to never forget, through it all.  A lighthouse represents safety and security.  I look to it, even now, as a beacon.  A rescue.  A shelter.  A calling from home.  Through the storms of this life, we can rest assured that that light will always be burning bright for all to see, especially in their time of need.  It calls to each of us, silently, bright and beautiful.  Powerful.  And just as the lighthouse joins land and sea, the Temple joins heaven and earth.  We can know that our loved ones will be waiting there for us, and our return.  I love knowing, that I have a place of refuge, from the chaos and turmoil that this life can tend to be from time to time.

I have seen and felt many miracles and tender mercies of The Lord, in those walls of our Temples.  I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for being mindful of me, and my dreams.  For not letting His light burn out, so that I could find my way back to Him.  My heart is full..... when my thoughts are turned toward the blessings of the Temple.  A lighthouse to us all, if we can just part our personal clouds long enough, to open our eyes and our hearts to see through the storms and feel of its perfect, brilliant, constant, and loving light.

Authored by LLHappyEternal Writer: 1405