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Temple Preparation: Overview


“Temple Preparation: Overview,” Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual (2025)

“Temple Preparation,” Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual

Temple Preparation

Temple Preparation

Overview

Throughout time, the Lord has commanded His people to build temples. In temples, we learn of Jesus Christ and make sacred covenants. One of the covenants we make is to live the law of consecration. We can serve and worship the Lord throughout our lives by participating in temple and family history work.

Pacing suggestion: These lessons could be taught at any point in the school year or during any week in the Come, Follow Me pacing. Specific possibilities are listed below for each lesson.

Prepare to teach

The following information provides you with ideas of what you may need to prepare in advance for each lesson.

Jesus Christ Is at the Center of All Temple Worship

Pacing suggestion: You might consider teaching this lesson around the same time you teach the lesson “Doctrine and Covenants 95,” when students learn about the Lord’s command to build the Kirtland Temple; or the lesson “Doctrine and Covenants 109,” when students learn about the dedication of the Kirtland Temple; or the lesson “Doctrine and Covenants 124,” when students learn about the Nauvoo Temple.

Lesson purpose: To help students feel a greater desire to worship Jesus Christ in His house.

  • Student preparation: Encourage students to consider the significance of the two phrases that are written on each temple: “Holiness to the Lord” and “The House of the Lord.”

  • Images to display: Youth partaking of the sacrament; youth attending church; full-time missionaries; the tabernacle in Moses’s time; Solomon’s temple; the Nephite temple in Bountiful

  • Videos:The Temple and Your Spiritual Foundation” (18:59; watch from time code 4:27 to 5:03); “In That Holy Place” (4:36)

Making Temple Worship a Lifelong Pursuit

Pacing suggestion: You might consider teaching this lesson around the same time as you teach the lesson “Doctrine and Covenants 95,” when students learn about the Lord’s command to build the Kirtland Temple; or the lesson “Doctrine and Covenants 109,” when students learn about the dedication of the Kirtland Temple; or the lesson “Doctrine and Covenants 124,” when students learn about the Nauvoo Temple.

Lesson purpose: This lesson can help students feel the importance of worshipping the Lord in temples throughout their lives.

  • Student preparation: You could invite students to ask a family member or Church leader how they have been blessed by attending the temple.

  • Video:Gathering the Family of God” (18:01; watch from time code 15:16 to 15:44)

In the Temple, We Covenant to Keep the Law of Consecration

Pacing suggestion: You might consider teaching this lesson around the same time as you teach the lesson “Doctrine and Covenants 42:29–42,” when students learn about the law of consecration.

Lesson purpose: To help students understand the sacred law of consecration, which we covenant in the temple with God to obey.

  • Student preparation: Invite students to write how they use their time, talents, or resources to contribute to the Lord’s Church and kingdom.

  • Images to display: Cake with topping

  • Handout:The Lord’s Law of Consecration

Family History and Temple Service

Pacing suggestion: You might consider teaching this lesson around the same time as you teach the lesson “Doctrine and Covenants 127–128, Part 2,” when students learn about participating in temple and family history work.

Lesson purpose: To help students find the names of their deceased ancestors and perform ordinances for them in the Lord’s temples.