Temples and their importance!

You've probably noticed the backdrop of the San Francisco Bay Area on this blog page.  You've also probably noticed the beautiful white and gold structure that looks across the bay.  Among the clearly visable hills on the Oakland skyscrape lies the Oakland Temple.  Both the Bay Area and the Oakland Temple are symbolic of my home; that of my Earthly home and that of my future Heavenly home.  The Temple is a beacon for the world, and played an especially important role in the late 1970's.

So there they were... Oakland, California!  California was trying to save energy, so the Church dutifully turn off the exterior lights on the Temple Grounds.  Not long thereafter, they received a call from the San Francisco Port Authority asking them to turn the lights back on!  Supposedly the Temple is located directly across the Gold Gate Bridge and serves as a guide to the Oakland Harbor.  The Oakland Temple not only serves as a beacon for sailors, but pilots use it as well to navigate.
The definition of a beacon is as follows:

"a guiding or warning signal, as a light or fire, especially one in an elevated position."

The Temple serves as a guiding signal to Christ.  It is elevated spiritually above the world and is literally the House of the Lord.  It is a place of spiritual learning and a place where we continue making covenants or promises to the Lord, such as that of sealing families for time and all eternity.

I remember the first time I was able to step foot in the interior of a temple.  It was in 2006 when the Sacramento Temple was open for a tour to the public.  I'm standing on the far left with my friends Lester, Scotty, my older brother Jordan, and Jon.

As I looked around, the Spirit of the Lord confirmed to my heart that the Temple was truly the House of God, and a foretaste of the eternities.  It became my goal, my vision, my beacon you might say.  There is no other home I'd rather dwell in than that of one of my Father's mansions (John 14:2).

Recently in the former USSR republic of Ukraine, members of the church celebrate the building of the Temple in Kyiv.  Watch and pay attention to how special the Temple is to the lives of Latter-Day Saints throughout the world.



For more information on temples and why we build them, check out this site.