Lessons on the Temple
Lesson No. Sixty-Six
Temple Service and Worship Renews our Minds and Bodies
Editorial note – This Lesson was originally written to our family when Larry served as President and Susan as Matron of the Louisville Kentucky Temple. We have also experienced the renewal of our minds and bodies during the time we served in the Salt Lake Temple, and we are experiencing it today as we serve in the Jordan River Temple.
Renat Kashapov with his wife, Lena, and their two children outside the Kyiv Ukraine Temple. The family was elated to hear a temple announced in their own country, Russia. Photo courtesy of Renat Kashapov. (Image taken from lds.org. 2018)
Renewal of mind and body – In a revelation on the priesthood the Lord promises: “For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies” (D&C 84:33). While this promise specifically refers to men, we have seen the same blessing given to sisters who magnify their calling in the temple.
Aging and the infirmities are part of life, and everyone will die and be resurrected. In this way their bodies will be renewed. However, for those who magnify their callings there is often an additional blessing of renewal of mind and body in this life. This is certainly true in temple service and worship.
Temple service worship blesses us physically and mentally – One of the remarkable blessings that has come from our temple service in the Louisville Kentucky Temple is that we are blessed spiritually and we are also renewed physically and mentally. We have not been sick, and have enjoyed strong resistance even though we shake hands with, and are around many people who are sick. We have been blessed with insight and have been able to learn and understand, and to discern and comprehend that which is truly important in life.
Mom was on her feet each shift for many hours often working in the baptistery. Once she was trying to move a heavy basket full of wet clothing with her leg and she tore a ligament in her knee. The doctor told her it would heal itself if she took it easy. She could not let up and change what she does in the temple. She was given a priesthood blessing and we exercised our faith in her behalf. She was blessed, her knee improved, and she continued her devoted service.
For a time Dad had a problem with his hips. He received a priesthood blessing, and was healed.
Being renewed and sustained physically and mentally is not unique to us. There are people in their eighties and even some in their nineties that are healthy in mind and body and able to serve as temple workers and/or patrons with distinction. This blessing is most often given to people who truly desire it.
In the temple our minds shine in use – It is well established that as people grow older it is important to actively use our minds with a goal of lifelong learning. There is much useless information in modern society that can occupy our minds. The temple provides an opportunity to exercise our minds in ways that are essential to our happiness in this life and the next.
Tennyson in his epic work Ulysses wrote: "How dull it is to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished, not to shine in use! As though to breathe were life!" (emphasis added) Truly there is more to life than breath, and no one wants to rust unburnished. The temple blesses us with the opportunity for our minds to shine in use and service to others and to the Lord.
Image of Eric Liddell running in a marathon. (Date of photo could not be found.)
Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength – One of our favorite movies is Chariots of Fire which tells of Eric Liddell who won a gold medal for Scotland in the 400-meter race in the 1924 Paris Olympics, and of his refusal to run on Sunday. Isaiah 40:31 was the scripture that inspired Eric Liddell:
“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Footnote a to verse 31 explains the Hebrew for the word wait means “hope for, or anticipate.” In the temple we are renewed in our hope for eternal life through the atonement of the Lord. We also hope, and anticipate, and prepare for His second coming.
Testimony – Susan and I know that the reason the Lord renews our minds and bodies is so that we can more fully worship Him and serve other people on both sides of the veil. We know that there is no better place to do that than in the temple.