Area Presidency Message
Ways to Remember Our Temple Covenants
When we strive to keep our covenants, our faith in the Lord increases and we receive more power.
The key purpose of our existence is to return to our Heavenly Father, and He will help us achieve this. The Lord declares, “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). To return to our Father in Heaven means to receive eternal life.
Because of Jesus Christ and His infinite Atonement, we have the possibility of receiving eternal life.
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (see John 14:6).
The Lord Jesus Christ not only prepared the way but also showed us the way we need to follow to receive the greatest of all gifts of our Heavenly Father. “And, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7).
To keep the commandments means to submit our will to the will of the Father, and to endure to the end requires that we persistently remember Him. An important way to enter and stay on the path back to our Heavenly Father is by making and keeping covenants.
When we take part in the ordinances of salvation (baptism, confirmation, ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood for men, the temple endowment, and marriage sealing) we make covenants with God. For each ordinance we participate in, there is a covenant attached to it.
Every commandment, ordinance, and covenant points to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because faith in Jesus Christ is a principle of action and power, when we strive to keep our covenants, our faith in the Lord increases and we receive more power.
Our aim is not only to make covenants but also to keep them. But why is it so important to make and keep covenants? President Russell M. Nelson taught, “The greatest compliment that can be earned here in this life is to be known as a covenant keeper.”1
To keep our covenants is not a checklist.
I would like to invite you to think about the things that will make you remember your covenants, because we cannot keep the things that we do not remember.
Start with your daily prayers. As we pray, we are literally talking to our Heavenly Father, the Supreme Being whom we covenanted with. Meaningful prayers will bring to our memory the promises and blessings that come from keeping our covenants.
Continue with a consistent and committed study of the scriptures. Your scripture study will help you learn the covenants the Lord made with His people and the promises they will receive if they strive to keep their covenants and endure to the end.
Study the words of our living prophets on how to stay on the covenant path.
Have a picture of the day of your baptism in a place you can easily view it.
For men, have a copy of your Melchizedek Priesthood line of authority available.
Have a picture of the temple in a place that you can easily see, even on the wallpaper of your mobile phone or computer.
“The temple is the house of the Lord. It points us to our Savior, Jesus Christ. In temples, we participate in sacred ordinances and make covenants with Heavenly Father that bind us to Him and to our Savior. These covenants and ordinances prepare us to return to Heavenly Father’s presence and to be sealed together as families for eternity. …
“Temple covenants and ordinances are sacred. The symbols associated with temple covenants should not be discussed outside the temple. Nor should we discuss the holy information we promise in the temple not to reveal. However, we may discuss the basic purposes and doctrine of temple covenants and ordinances and the spiritual feelings we have in the temple.”2
One very effective way of remembering the covenants we made in the house of the Lord is by wearing our temple garments.
The garment represents your personal relationship with God and the commitment to obey your covenants made in the temple. When members are faithful to their covenants and wear the garment properly throughout their lives, it also serves as a protection.3 Another effective way to remember the temple covenants is by having a current temple recommend. All members need to be worthy of and to have a current temple recommend, even if they do not live near a temple.
I invite you to work with your priesthood leaders to have a current temple recommend. As Elder Rasband taught during general conference in October 2020, “Begin the process now to become ‘recommended to the Lord’ so that His Spirit will be with you in abundance.”4
I testify that by having a current temple recommend we will start literally becoming a recommended people to the Lord.
When we take part in the ordinances of the temple, we make covenants with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and we promise to keep all of them.
I promise you that by making and keeping temple covenants, you will receive more power to resist temptations and evil during your journey in the covenant path.
During his closing remarks in the general conference in October 2022, our beloved prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, taught, “Let us never lose sight of what the Lord is doing for us now. He is making His temples more accessible. He is accelerating the pace at which we are building temples. He is increasing our ability to help gather Israel. He is also making it easier for each of us to become spiritually refined. I promise that increased time in the temple will bless your life in ways nothing else can.”5
Let’s accept the invitation of our prophet to not lose sight of what the Lord is doing for us now.
By having a current temple recommend, striving to keep our covenants we made in the temple, and increasing our time in the temple, the Lord will fulfil the promise made by our prophet that our life will be blessed in ways nothing else can.
I know that our Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ lives. We are the people of the covenant. May the Lord bless us with the knowledge and understanding of how important is to make and keep temple covenants.