Temple Day

I spent 6.5 hours here today...split between morning and evening with the afternoon off so I could get Lilian to preschool and go to Brandon's SEP (Student, Educator, Parent) conference at school.
Our church ward decided to have a temple DAY and told us about it far enough in advance that we could make arrangements for child care and taking work off, if possible.  So our ward had people steadily filing in and out of those front doors all day long...all on different schedules but all trying to get as much time in as possible.

I've never spent that much time in the temple in one day before.  It was truly an amazing experience for me.  The peace and strength I felt there and took away with me at the end of the day was so rejuvenating.  I had so many new insights that are still swirling around in my brain this morning.  Most of them are too new and special to me...or too sacred, really, to share here.  But I do have one thing...

I am never in a very good mood on a temple day.  Oh, once I arrive my mood lifts immediately and I'm glad I'm there...it's the getting there that is the problem.  When I have made plans to attend the temple, say later in the evening...I know I'm in for a hard day.  Everything that can go wrong, will and I find myself fighting the urge to just stay home.  And truth be told, there are days where I have done just that.  Made excuses.  Told myself that I'd go a different day.  I know full well the reasons WHY, of course.  No way, no how does Satan want me going to the temple.  But knowing the reasons WHY things are going wrong...although it helps a little, still doesn't completely take away the frustration.    The same was true yesterday morning.  Oh, I never even considered NOT going but I found myself grumpy, irritated about all the sacrifices I was making to go, feeling sorry for myself that Bryan wasn't in town to go with me, etc.

After dropping Lilian off with a friend, I made my way up the hill to the temple and found myself parked next to a close friend from my neighborhood who was also just arriving.  As we walked together towards the front door she asked how my day was going.  Just polite conversation....but I told her, matter of factly, that of course my morning had not gone very smoothly.  She smiled.  She understood, she said.  About 5 years ago she made the decision to try to go to the temple every Friday morning.  Which means that every Friday morning getting the kids off to school is harder than usual, things come up, she's tired, she's grumpy.  BUT.  She had learned to look at those obstacles thrown in her way as an opportunity to become stronger and more determined to go.  And so now, when things come up to make her temple day rocky she just defiantly says, "Oh yeah??  You think THAT'S going to stop me??  You just watch!"  She says she stops short of saying "Bring it on!!"...because, well Satan can, realistically, do just that.  Why push it, right?  :)

Anyhow, this thought really stuck with me.  And it was what got me back to the temple later that evening when it would've been easy to tell myself that I'd already been that day and surely that was enough.  Realistically, it COULD'VE been enough.  But I had made the decision that I wanted to take advantage of this temple day... to truly make the sacrifices necessary to be in the temple for more time than I do normally.  So despite all thoughts to the contrary, I thought of my friend and her DETERMINATION....and headed back up the hill.
I'm so glad I did.