An Outward Expression of an Inward Commitment

In light of the recent NBC special about being Mormon in America, I feel the following to be germane; this is one of the best explanations that I know of for a curious person regarding the temple garment...

On one occasion one of the brethren was invited to speak to the faculty and staff of the Navy Chaplains Training School in Newport, Rhode Island. The audience included a number of high-ranking naval chaplains from the Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish faiths.

In the question-and-answer period one of the chaplains asked, “Can you tell us something about the special underwear that some Mormon servicemen wear?” The implication was, “Why do you do that? Isn’t it strange? Doesn’t that present a problem?”

To the chaplain who made the inquiry he responded with a question: “Which church do you represent?” In response he named one of the Protestant churches.

He said, “In civilian life and also when conducting the meetings in the military service you wear clerical clothing, do you not?” The chaplain said that he did.

He continued: “I would suppose that that has some importance to you, that in a sense it sets you apart from the rest of your congregation. It is your uniform, as it were, of the ministry. Also, I suppose it may have a much more important place. It reminds you of who you are and what your obligations and covenants are. It is a continual reminder that you are a member of the clergy, that you regard yourself as a servant of the Lord, and that you are responsible to live in such a way as to be worthy of your ordination.”

He then told them: “You should be able to understand at least one of our reasons why Latter-day Saints have a deep spiritual commitment concerning the garment. A major difference between your churches and ours is that we do not have a professional clergy, as you do. The congregations are all presided over by local leaders. They are men called from all walks of life. Yet they are ordained to the priesthood. They hold offices in the priesthood. They are set apart to presiding positions as presidents, counselors, and leaders in various categories. The women, too, share in that responsibility and in those obligations. The man who heads our congregation on Sunday as the bishop may go to work on Monday as a postal clerk, as an office worker, a farmer, a doctor; or he may be an air force pilot or a naval officer. By our standard he is as much an ordained minister as you are by your standard. He is recognized as such by most governments. We draw something of the same benefits from this special clothing as you would draw from your clerical vestments. The difference is that we wear ours under our clothing instead of outside, for we are employed in various occupations in addition to our service in the Church. These sacred things we do not wish to parade before the world.”

He then explained that there are some deeper spiritual meanings as well, connecting the practice of wearing this garment with covenants that are made in the temple. We wouldn’t find it necessary to discuss these—not that they are secret, he repeated, but because they are sacred.

The garment, covering the body, is a visual and tactile reminder of these covenants. For many Church members the garment has formed a barrier of protection when the wearer has been faced with temptation. Among other things it symbolizes our deep respect for the laws of God—among them the moral standard.  

{reference here}

For a more in-depth discussion on the matter, may I refer you to the following article: "The Temple Garment: An Outward Expression of an Inward Commitment" from the August 1997 issue of The Ensign.

Dear Deer,

Thank you for leaving us a blossom on our lilac bush. You are so considerate. I realize now how selfish it is of me to want a lilac bush that is covered in blossoms. You obviously need them more than I do. I will try to become as considerate as you are.

Act Naturally

{this is where we pretend like it hasn't been a year since I posted.}
In my defense, my pause in posting pretty much coincides with being called to the Relief Society Presidency.

Behind the scenes

So on Thursday night The Professor told Cuddles, "There's some people that want to come over and watch you play wii tomorrow."
Cuddles said, "Ok."
And The Professor said, "They might video tape it."
And Cuddles said, "Um, OK... if they want to..."
And The Professor said, "And it might be on the news."
And Cuddles said, "Uh, I'm going to freak out."

Then later that night after he'd had some time to think it over he said, "This is a dream come true."

They came right after school on Friday. I was able to get my house basically clean. But, heaven help me, they went through the garage! oh well!!I let Easy take pictures of the picture taking...


If you want to know the rest of the story you can go here.
The Professor spent most of his morning today interviewing with Time, NPR, Newsweek and the local news.

What do you mean I haven't posted all year?

what happens to Easy's hair after lying around for a week

Sick kids. That’s the excuse I will be using.

Easy was sick for two full weeks. Fever. Cough. Other stuff you don’t want to know about.

Then Cuddles threw us a curve ball and waited until Easy was fully recovered and back to school before he decided it was time to get sick. Meaning that all the way from Marting Luther King Day until Presidents’ Day there was me at home with somebody sick.

When Easy first became sick I sat down with all my seed catalogs. Made a gigantical list of what I wanted and compared prices. It really really really really got me yearning for spring and actually almost believed it was coming soon. Until I drove to the doctor’s office through the snow and slid into the parking lot. Love that. But my head was spinning trying to make heads or tails of all the different varieties and price comparisons. I had to make a spreadsheet. Actually two.

Then I tried to put together a seed schedule. I learned a few things from last year {mostly of what not to do…} and I’m planning on this year being even better. I started the rosemary seeds first and then so far added begonias, pansies, and basil. And the impatiens are ready to go. Yay!

I have this dream of filling my yard with flowers and other good stuff. My role model is The Professor’s grandmother. This is her yard. My kids call it the jungle. But I figure if I can even get half that much stuff to grow it will be spectacular.

Off the floor

I’ve now been to Ikea twice. This time we actually bought something.

We’ve been needing to get some bookshelves since we moved in. I wanted something like these.

But my budget brought me to these.

So on Saturday The Professor and I made our way to Ikea. On the drive there, I said, “just watch, they won’t have them.” Then I thought, “Of course they’ll have them. They’re Ikea.” So we got there and made our way through the maze until we could find the shelves.

Sold out.

We ended up with these.

Same line, different size. The Professor was actually campaining for these ones because they can be hung on the wall and not just be boring regular bookcases. So we rounded some up and brought them home. Here is how they ended up. We were also the lucky recipients of a craft table that The Professor’s sister was clearing out of her basement. Turns out her teenagers weren’t really using it any longer. Who knew? So that, along with the fabulously aesthetic touch of the tent in the corner, things really came together.

I actually really like it. It could be just the fact that everything is not in baskets or boxes along the wall anymore. But it’s good to finally have this space put together in a way that lets it function. And when you get one thing out of the way, you can move on to the next thing. In this case, its moving all the kids craft stuff and office supplies into the hallway closet where the books were stashed and then finish moving all my craft stuff into my sewing room in the basement, then moving the kids storage out and the toys into the storage closet in the basement, and putting up the storage shelves in the utility room so we can move the storage stuff out of the garage then I can organize my craft room and clean up my desk and files. And then I think I will be done unpacking. Luckily for me, according to Elastigirl I still have a year to get it done.

Slippery

I used to wonder what it meant in the scriptures when they would sometimes describe their possessions as ‘slippery.’ {like in Mormon 1:18} It always seemed to me to be a strange choice of words. The same thing happened to the Jaredites when they were nearing their destruction. It’s funny, as I was looking back on this year, I realized that we had some striking examples of that very thing.

At the beginning of the year, we lost some nice things that we hadn’t even had for very long. It was a sobering reminder that things of this life can be so, well, slippery. Another description that comes to mind is the scripture describing things as being in a dream. “And all the nations that fight against Zion, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision; yea, it shall be unto them, even as unto a hungry man which dreameth, and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty; or like unto a thirsty man which dreameth, and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite.” That image always made sense to me, because even as a child I knew what it was to dream something and have it seem so real, only to find it completely disintegrate when I woke.

A few weeks ago we had another reminder of how quickly things can be lost. We woke up one morning and discovered that the Tabernacle was burning to the ground. Just a couple of months ago I accompanied Cuddles with his class on a field trip as we enjoyed a concert by the Utah Valley Symphony with a Tabernacle full of third graders. It was a wonderful experience, and Cuddles thoroughly enjoyed himself. I was so happy to have been able to go with them. That is the last time we were there. And the last time we’ll be there. Maybe he’ll remember it. We’ll see.

photo from here

It’s strange to see pictures of it today and to think about what it used to be. That one we never saw coming. Something that had seemed to always be there just slipped away. Almost in an instant.

It’s good to have reminders to keep us grounded and keep things in perspective. And it’s unfortunate that we seem to need such vivid and stark reminders.

ps: here is a great post for further thoughts on the matter