How the Temple Helps

By Frances W. Hodgson

Every parent knows that rearing children brings unexpected challenges and blessings. My husband and I have discovered that when we consider the eternal perspective of the role of parenting, we feel a great weight of responsibility along with great hope.

Of course, the Lord has given us spiritual rewards to ease our burdens. For our family, the greatest of those spiritual rewards has been going to the house of the Lord to receive His help as our children have grown and life has become more complicated. We have discovered that we can take very specific problems to the Lord in His temple.

As our children became teenagers we realized they had the potential to make serious mistakes. Probably the most frightening realization was that we had basically done all we knew how to do, yet danger signs loomed before us.

Then we discovered that temple worship could be an important element in our efforts to help our children choose the right. We have found great strength and blessing from attending the temple in the spirit of fasting and prayer for our children. We pray for a feeling of personal preparation, for the appropriate thoughts and attitudes prior to entering the temple. When appropriate, our meditations while inside the temple are about our role as parents and about the needs of that particular child.

Sometimes answers have come rapidly and clearly. The first time it happened, we perhaps considered it a coincidence. But soon it was obvious that we indeed were engaging in a process that was bringing down the blessings of heaven.

Answers sometimes came in the form of people who influenced our children’s lives, such as a loving bishop who helped our college-age daughter through a difficult crisis. Other children have been similarly blessed. Each has his or her agency, and they may choose not to respond the way we hope, but we feel that our service in the temple has brought heaven’s help in our children’s lives.

Our benefits from worship in the temple have extended beyond blessing our children. On one occasion, my husband faced a very perplexing employment problem that he decided to take to the temple. On that day, the Lord blessed him with the impression that a particular scripture was the answer to his question.

Upon arriving home, he anxiously opened the scriptures and, to his delight, found help for his problem. This experience opened up a whole new application of the scriptures. The Lord can speak to His children by reminding us of scriptures that contain answers to our challenges. We appreciate this principle we learned in the temple.

In a world where evil abounds and where Satan has unleashed his powers to destroy homes, it is comforting to know that we can go to the house of the Lord and seek guidance. Regardless of what challenges we face as we care for our families, we find joy when we seek the sanctuary and solace of the temple.