How can we teach our children about the importance of the temple?

Eula Denny, recently released as matron of the Salt Lake Temple. To understand the meaning of temple work, our children must first understand the plan of salvation. The human race was “in the beginning with God” (D&C 93:29); and the purpose of life is to return to live with him. Temple work is an integral part of achieving that purpose.

Much of what we learn about the temple and the purpose of temple work is learned within the walls of that sacred building and cannot be discussed outside the temple. But we can do a few things to prepare our children for future temple experiences.

First, we can explain the reasons for temple attendance. Most people go there initially to receive their own endowments. Some go to be sealed for eternity to a companion. If parents were not sealed in the temple before children were born, families can attend the temple to be sealed. Many attend the temple to do vicarious work (baptisms, endowments, marriages, and other ordinances) in behalf of those who are dead.

These temple ordinances are sacred, not secret, blessings. We do not discuss the temple ordinances outside the temple. Elder Boyd K. Packer wrote, “The ordinances … are simple. They are beautiful. They are sacred. They are kept confidential lest they be given to those who are unprepared. Curiosity is not a preparation. Deep interest … is not a preparation. Preparation for the ordinances includes preliminary steps: faith, repentance, baptism, confirmation, worthiness, a maturity and dignity worthy of one who comes invited as a guest into the house of the Lord.” (The Holy Temple, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1980, p. 26.)

We can also explain to our children the meaning of unfamiliar words used in connection with temple ordinances.

For example, all who enter the temple must have a recommend—a passport for entrance into the Lord’s holy house. Interviews with your bishop and stake president, conducted in confidence, determine your worthiness for a recommend. You personally sign your recommend, indicating to the Lord that you are worthy to enter the temple.

To endow means to enrich, to give to another something of long-lasting worth. The temple endowment is a blessing the Lord desires his children to receive. “Your endowment,” Brigham Young explained, “is to receive all those ordinances … which are necessary for you after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, comp. John A. Widtsoe, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1977, p. 416.)

A temple covenant is a binding and serious agreement or promise made between God and a person. The endowment contains covenants. Each person promises to maintain obedience and devotion to the gospel and devote talents and means in order to advance the work of the Lord.

Exaltation is eternal life—life as God lives it. Celestial marriage is the gateway to exaltation, allowing us a continuation of the family unit in eternity. Those who obtain it gain an inheritance in the highest of three degrees of glory within the celestial kingdom. (See D&C 131:1–4.) Salvation in its full meaning is synonymous with exaltation, or eternal life.

Ordinances are a specifically limited number of priesthood-related steps required by God that, in a general sense, signal one’s spiritual progression. Within this circle of specific ordinances is a smaller circle that might be called temple ordinances. Often people think that temples are only for marriages. This is not true. In the temple, eligible Church members can participate in the most exalted of the redeeming ordinances revealed to mankind.

There are other ways we can point our children toward the temple. We can involve them in family history and research so they understand the challenging nature of finding and teaching all the Lord’s children. We can hang pictures of temples in our homes. And when our children are old enough, they can go to the temple to be baptized for the dead. We can also mention the temple in family prayers and encourage children to ask in their individual prayers that Heavenly Father will help them to live to be worthy to attend the temple.

Everything we do in the temple is beautiful, sacred, and necessary if we are to achieve the great goal of returning to our Heavenly Father.