Line upon Line

Each Sunday, at the end of Church, as we try to wrangle our little gaggle of children towards the door, we try to stop for nothing. If we stop, our toddler will probably bolt for the nearest light switch or our four-year-old will find a stretch of open hallway to run down (in the wrong direction). Once we’re moving, we need to keep moving. 

There is but one exception. 

On a side table in the foyer, as people filter out, is a little Lego-style build of the Salt Lake Temple that is coming together each week, brick by brick. Next to the little construction site is a sign that says: 

My boys always ask if they can each put on a piece and I quickly scan the list hoping that we have done something that can count. 

It is an over 1,500-piece build. That requires lots of little spiritual habits from the members each week to make progress. But then, so does being a covenant people who build the temple into the center of their worship.  

I love this small visual reminder that unites our ward in an effort to keep remembering the temple. 

The effort to bring a ward family together around a central purpose is an ongoing challenge of most callings in the Church. Of course, that central purpose is a relationship with the Savior, but facing your life towards the temple is an integral part of that struggle. 

So, how can we help members to make that effort together? How we can encourage each other on that temple path and feel united as a ward family along the way? 

The member of my ward who decided to be in charge of this Lego-style temple build had a wonderful idea to get people involved in working together. 

I would love to hear what ideas your wards have used in the comments below. 

One unforgettable initiative that my childhood ward undertook was the goal to do an entire additional ward worth of temple work for those on the other side. In other words, they wanted to complete all of proxy temple ordinances for the same number of people who had passed on, as were currently in our ward. In effect, we would be creating a sister ward in the Spirit World. 

Our ward was the Fairfax Ward, our goal was to create the Fairfax 2nd Ward on the other side. We devoted an entire bulletin board in the Church to this effort. Though I was only old enough to do baptisms at that point and the temple was an hour away, I never forgot seeing “Fairfax 2nd Ward” written up on that bulletin board and watching the names be added, one after another. 

There is something worthwhile in making your progress and your process as a ward, visual. Perhaps you may start to take that visual for granted in the hustle and bustle of your Church duties, but it might be a sight that your child never forgets. 

I hope my sons don’t forget building our little Salt Lake Temple as a ward. 

Their counterparts in the youth program certainly didn’t forget the sights and sounds of volunteering to staff the open house of the Saratoga Springs Temple when our ward was asked to participate. 

As scores of temples are being dedicated all over the world, take the opportunity to participate in an open house if you possibly can—not just as a visitor, but as a volunteer. 

I was asked by someone in my stake to be a host and lead tours, but I didn’t feel like I had the time or the flexibility in my schedule to say yes. When the open house time concluded and we had a testimony meeting where every single testimony from people of every age was about how meaningful the experience was to them, I felt like I had sorely missed out. 

Thankfully, they announced a temple to be built even closer to us less than a year later so I look forward to having another chance. 

But there was something deeply unifying about our ward having stewardship over a temple together. The sacrifice of time, the long hours, even the sometimes mundane tasks involved in it, increased each person’s love for the place and its purpose. I felt the magnetism of it, even from a distance. 

My concluding thought in all of this is that there is creativity to be had in imagining the ways to unite our ward families around the House of the Lord. It can be more interesting and more involved than just bringing up the temple in any lesson you can. 

What ideas have you been a part of? What has worked for your family or your ward? I hope you will all share resources and thoughts in the comments below.