I’ve been thinking about the temple recommend interview questions. I actually think about them a lot. The temple recommend interview questions are what help me in my life to choose the better part. They really are simple questions but if you take some time and really do some soul searching they can help you see where you might be able to improve in your life and the things you are doing.
If you aren’t a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, let me give you a quick overview of a temple recommend and what that’s all about. When we go to the temple we make covenants with the Lord and the temple recommend interview helps you to know whether or not you are ready to make those promises.
So, I think I’m going to do a series of blog posts about the questions and go through them one by one to talk about what the question is and why it is an important thing to think about.
To day I just want to talk about the very first question: Do you have faith in and a testimony of God, the Eternal Father; His Son, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost?
I think most of us who are Christians would easily say yes to this question. Of course we believe in them or else we wouldn’t be calling ourselves Christians. So easy, yes, next question please. That’s how I have viewed that question for a very long time but what if we stopped a moment and really thought about what that question could mean.
I believe in a lot of things I haven’t seen. I believe in Antarctica. I believe in platypus or is it platypuses or maybe platypi. Anyway, you get the picture. I believe in those things but I do not have faith in them. They aren’t really important to my well being in this life or in eternity like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are. Sometimes language is hard because there are deeper meanings to things that are difficult to express. Or maybe it’s more like scripture where there are nuanced meanings that come out as you study and pray and ponder. It’s easy to skip over the short verses rather than taking your time with each word.
I heard David Butler say that you could possibly be a church person your whole life, making good choices and attending your meetings, and never be a Jesus Person.
I think there is a spectrum from plain old church person to Jesus person. It’s a becoming. It means that there is effort put in – often a lot of effort. It can be pretty easy to be a church person. Some of us just don’t have the desire to do things that might not be the best choice. We like going to meetings and having discussions about scripture and seeing our friends and wearing our best clothes. It feels good to do that and I’m going to say that I think God is pretty happy with us. But being a Jesus person means that we have a personal relationship with Him. We have gotten to know him through hours of real study of His word. WE have gotten there with lots of prayer and gratitude and service and also doing our best to recognize His part in our lives. I’m somewhere on that path but I’m still working on getting closer to Him and growing my faith.
I’m going to go back to the initial question: Do you have faith in and a testimony of God, the Eternal Father; His Son, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost? Say yes. Then say yes again and each time you say yes that question can have a deeper meaning for you. Answering these temple recommend questions is more for you than for the person who is asking them. It’s a time to reflect and remind ourselves where we might need to focus to become more Christlike in our lives. It’s a time to say out loud where we stand and what we believe and what we are willing to sacrifice because of our love for the Gospel and our Savior and our Heavenly Father.
Photo by Aubrey Odom on Unsplash
Always Choose Charity 