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Hello, everyone and welcome to a new series I’m starting today. Thursday Thoughts. I’m hoping to post random family stories, and my thoughts about things going on in our lives. Not every Thursday, just when I have something great or funny or “blog worthy” to share. I’ve hosted series like this in the past (you can see them HERE) and am excited about doing so again. Since starting this little blog of mine, nearly 15 years ago my role as a wife and mother has grown and expanded and changed significantly, as you can imagine. When I started I had a houseful of small children, 12 years old down to two three year old boys. Those 3 year old boys are nearly 18 now, my family is nearly raised and I’m a grandma. That’s a lot of water and life (and recipes) under the bridge! Now seemed like a good time to pick up the opportunity to write about it again.
First up…a few thoughts about LDS Temples and how we celebrate a new one.
As many of you know, I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. A privilege that I hold very dear. Where I live, in Utah there are two new LDS temples that have opened in the past couple of weeks, and are available for anyone to tour, you don’t have to be a member of the LDS church to come and see how beautiful they are. Everyone is welcome. You can reserve tickets by clicking HERE for the Layton Temple and HERE for the Taylorsville Temple.
My husband and I were invited to an early touring of the Taylorsville and Layton Temples with other digital content creators. (One of the perks of being on the internet, I suppose).
It was such a joy to tour them both and to be able to share in a lovely reception after each one.
They new Layton Temple is less than 10 minutes away from our home. My family had the opportunity to play music at the reception center. Look how grown up my kiddos are! I could seriously weep buckets full of tears over them (and do, regularly). Proud mama, here.
As part of the celebration of our new Layton Temple, the women’s organization in my stake (the Relief Society) put on a magnificent dinner and program to honor the new temple. It was delightful. The beautiful stained glass graphic you see at the top of the MENU resembles part of the stained glass in the temple. So beautiful! And, please notice the stunning Sourdough Bread. One of the women in my congregation made 26 loaves for the event! It was spectacular.
As part of this celebration MyHandsomeHusband arranged a string medley featuring several songs about Jesus, that he and my kids performed. It was such a treat for me to listen to them practice and then perform.
I think it is safe to say, we’ve had a lot of celebrating going on here in our community. We are thrilled to have these beautiful temples near us.
The reasons to celebrate are many.
For me personally, the temple is where I find peace. Joy. Acceptance. Everything we do in the temple points us to Jesus. We make covenants with Him. We learn more about Him. We are reminded of His eternal plan and our place in it. There is relief from the journey, strength found to continue, acceptance and love. It feels a lot like this sweet picture of a child sitting next to Jesus. It feels safe.
That is a lot to celebrate, my friends.
A lot indeed.
Come and have a look for yourselves, won’t you? The temples are open to the public to tour until June.
My love to all of you. Thanks for dropping by today. 🙂
We went to the Taylorsville temple last week! I haven’t been in a temple since I was a teenager (I’m no longer a member) and my husband had never been, so it was interesting to see what the new one is like. I loved the paintings and the marble work in the staircase. Very nice pictures, and I’m glad you had such a good time there with your family.
Hi Erin,
It really is so beautiful, right? I’m so happy you guys had a chance to go.
All my best,
~Jamie