The Temple

This post is long overdue, and honestly, I've been meaning to write something like this for a long time. But on days like today it seems to be more and more applicable.

I have the absolute privilege of living in a wonderful little home, just half a mile from the Columbus Temple. It's a tiny, cute temple. In fact, I think it is the smallest "small" temple floor plan. But I guess I'm proof that great gifts come in small packages. About a year ago, the temple added an endowment session at 9 am on Wednesday mornings. And since all the other temple sessions conflicted with nap/bed time, this was pretty much the only session I could attend that didn't guarantee major meltdowns. It was about this time that Anna and Cami entered my life and, well, things just got so much better after that. We decided we'd organize into a temple group, each taking turns to watch the kids at my house while the other 2 went to the temple. This became the highlight of my week.

Sadly, Cami has since moved away, but Anna and I still keep trucking along. We even got Lauren to come for a few months before little Cam came to town. Because of this arrangement, I can say that I have been to the temple a minimum of twice a month for a year, and I can't even begin to tell you how this has impacted my life.

There will never, ever, be another time in my live when I live so close to the temple (even if I lived in Utah), and I would feel enormously guilty to not be taking advantage of this precious time. Most surprising to me have been the interesting ways that the temple has blessed my life, in ways I truly did not expect. For instance, a while back I had a very stressful week coming up. It was so dreaded because of the stress that would accompany this week, that I got overwhelmed just thinking about that coming week. Almost to the point where I felt like the dread of this week was crippling me to accomplish the little tasks I needed to do at the moment. That week while I was in the temple, I made a plea with God that I didn't care if I learned anything at the temple that week, but if He would please help me not have an ulcer by the time this week arrived, I would be most grateful. And I can say that from that moment on, every time I thought about that week, I was able to just brush it aside and not let it affect me. My mind was at ease about the whole situation and I was able to get through that week without any hangups.

The thing I like most about going to the temple is the peace I feel when I'm there. And above anything else, it's 1.5 hours of quietness. There, my prayers are pure and concrete because I have no distractions. My life is still challenging (just like everyone else), but on particularly rough days, I wonder how much worse off I'd be/feel if I was not able to attend the temple as often as I can. I'm sure the days are numbered of how long I'll live within walking distance of the temple, but while I'm here I'll cherish every minute of it.