raising – Temple Study

Power in the Right Hand

February 23, 2009 by Bryce Haymond 12 Comments

Sustaining Church officers during the solemn assembly of April 2008 General Conference

I have been thinking recently about the power, significance, and symbolism of using our arms, particularly our right arm or hand. I’m not sure what it is that gives this power to the way we use our arms and hands, but there is a fundamental force that comes from using them. It could be that we use our arms and hands to accomplish most of what we do in a day; they are our main tools of action. We use our arms and hands to get dressed, eat, drive, use a computer, handle objects, express ourselves, shake hands, signal to people, communicate, and do many of the things we do every day. But there is something else that makes our arms and hands powerful, especially when we raise them up. [Read more…]

Temple a Model for Raising Children

February 4, 2008 by Bryce Haymond Leave a Comment

Today there was a great post on Times & Seasons about President Beck’s talk at the last General Conference called “Mothers Who Know“, and specifically focusing on how to make our homes as a temple. Julie Smith makes some good points about how we can integrate temple teachings into our home environment.

But I also thought a comment from Anita made an interesting point about how the temple can be a model for raising and teaching our children:

…in their initial years they are given a name and learn about the importance of bodies, body parts, about clothing and modesty, the nature of this world, creation, and opposites. As they are baptized and accountable, they learn to recognize Satan and his half-truths, and as they become teenagers, we focus on morality and chastity, and preparation for marriage. The temple can be a map through mortality and guide us in raising our children if we look at it that way.

On a related note, in some cultures the initiation of adolescents into adulthood only takes place by the sacred rites and ceremonies (i.e. the Hopi).