Early Morning Religious Thoughts

What makes a morning an early morning lately is not the hour, but the level of exhaustion that starts the days. I have been attempting to fight that exhaustion with little success. I suspect that the weight increase I have experience has made my aging CPAP machine less effective. But I rise early this day in both hour and exhaustion with purpose. I am heading to the easily available (to me) spiritual experience known as the temple. It is amazing to me that there is a place with I can have instant access to a deep, personal moment to commune with the divine that allows for more open communication between my spirit and The Spirit. That is not to say that I am always ready for the answers I seek or even receive answers. Last Tuesday I went with my congregation excited by the opportunity proposed by this quote:

I can promise you that if you will go to Him in prayer and ask what He would have you do next, promising that you will put His kingdom first, He will answer your prayer and He will keep His promise to add upon your head blessings, enough and to spare. - Henry B. Eyring

I heard that quote by a young man teaching my congregation last Sunday. And MBWM and I were both drawn to it. That prayer was raised nearly hourly after I heard it. And it was the prayer in my heart as I approached the temple earlier this week. I am drawn to the peace, love, joy, and other supernal sublime experiences that await there. That is not to say I received an answer on what to do next in my job search, for that was my specific prayer. I couldn't even be sure that what I had done in my job search was pleasing unto the Lord. But I did receive the assurance when I wondered if I should even be in the Lord's presence as manifest in his Holy House, I received a powerful witness that I was where I should be.

I write about the temple this morning because I eagerly await MBWM. I am hopeful she is coming with me, but she has been in bad shape this last few days. She is attempting to push through the pain to see if she is able to attend. If she had already informed me that she wasn't going, this entry would have been an after-the-fact posting.

And so I am going to race off to make breakfast. Whether she goes or not, we need to eat.

Yours in the hopeful gratitude of the relationship[s the Lord encourages,

Eliot

P.S.:
May I remind you that when we dedicate a house to the Lord, what we really do is dedicate ourselves to the Lord’s service, with a covenant that we shall use the house in the way he intends that it shall be used. - Joseph Fielding Smith, "Ogden Temple Dedicatory Prayer," Ensign, Mar. 1972, 6.

P.P.S.:
MBWM is unable to attend with me, so I am running off, regretfully, without her. I hope I can bring the Spirit of the Temple back home with me.