Sunday lesson

Our Relief Society lesson this week was on Temples. It was a great lesson. I wanted to share with you something that I learned, something that I've never thought about before. Something that helped me to understand more the sacrifices the saints made in the early years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
When the prophet Joseph Smith asked the saints to sacrifices their time, talents, and even fine china for the temple I never understood what an amazing sacrifice it was. Sure it must have been extremely hard to give up the one thing that has been passed down from mother to daughter for generations. Your one 'nice' thing, your china. But there is much more to it than that. The saints didn't understand the importance of temples back then. They just knew that when the Prophet Joseph Smith asked them to do something they did it.
We understand how important temples are today for a few reasons. For one, we have many copies of the Bible. We can read it in our homes. We know the stories of old. How Joseph and the people he lead out of Egypt carried a Temple with them for 40 years in the dessert. Setting it up and taking it down. It was that important to them and to the Lord. I could go on, there are many stories in the Bible about the temple and the importance of it. And now we have parents, friends, siblings, teachers that have been through the Temple. That have received their own endowment (gift from God) and they tell us how important Temples are.
Now take all of that knowledge away. You have no idea what a Temple is or what it is used for. The Prophet comes and asks you to sacrifice all that you have to build this building, this Temple. How would you respond? The saints were amazing! They gave so much for this wonderful Church. I have a greater appreciation for the Saints. How grateful I am for the Temples that are so close to us. Our Heavenly Father loves us deeply to give us such an amazing gift of the Temple.