The Bright Side...

Our family had the opporunity to go to the temple on Saturday. Until we moved here, we always lived close to a temple. In Dallas, I swapped babysitting with my friend, Lori, and was able to go at least once or twice a month. The more I went, the more I loved and cherished it.

Our closest temple here in Iowa is Winter Quarters in Omaha, Nebraska. It's a two hour drive. I remember being so disappointed at how far away it was and wondered how often I'd get to go. Usually before a trip I would think about all the travel preparations needed, the entire day and activities I will be giving up to go, the long drive with little ones, babysitting arrangements, etc.

Recently I got to go with some of my friends to the temple. My friend Monica offered the prayer before we left and said something that changed my negative attitude. She simply thanked the Lord for having a temple so close. I remember opening my eyes and thinking, "so close? this is not close at all." I'm thankful for her prayer because it humbled me. I had been somewhat pessimistic about my circumstances, and to someone else this was a blessing. I decided I needed it to be a blessing to me as well. I decided to look on the bright side of things.

With this newfound persepctive, I wanted to share a few simple blessings I have found in having a temple 2 hours away:

1. It requires a lot of thought and preparation. Because my mind is on getting prepared for the trip all week, I find myself thinking about my spriritual preparation a lot more.

2. The day we go to the temple is truly a family day. I talk to the kids about it all week getting them excited and asking what special treats they would like to bring, etc. We don't bring movies for the drive (although there is nothing wrong with this). We talk, sometimes we bring journals that we have from our ancestors and read them outloud. The kids also bring books and coloring stuff. It's a great time for Tyler and I to catch up on a lot of things, especially family matters. After attending the temple, we take the kids to lunch and have another 2 hour drive together. The bright side of the long drive is that it feels less like we just get right home and jump right back to our busy lives. It makes for a nice transition to the "real world."

3. I like to think that my kids are learning something of sacrifice as well. They too are giving up their fun Saturday activities to support our temple worship. I hope they will have fond memories of these trips and remember the sacrifices they made to support their parents. I was thinking on our way home this last time that I want to make sure we get a family picture in front of the temple everytime we come so we can have those memories to share, and our kids can see that temples are important to our family.


Would I love to have a temple a lot closer? Absolutely, yes! But until then, I will just have keep looking on the bright side!

Since I didn't get any pics from this last trip, here are a few older pics of our family at different temples:


Salt Lake Temple, 2005








Bountiful Temple, 2005

My cousin Bre, Mariah and me at the Bountiful temple.

My oldest brother, John and Paula and my niece Toccoa.