Receiving Our King

I recently found a couple of posts that I wrote last month and never published them for some reason. Here's one of them:

I recently gave a Young Women’s lesson entitled, “Temple Endowment.” This was a great lesson that I highly recommend! Included was a quote from James E. Talmage:

“{In the endowment, members covenant to} observe the law of strict virtue and chastity, to be charitable, benevolent, tolerant and pure; to devote both talent and material means to the spread of truth and the uplifting of the race; to maintain devotion to the cause of truth; and to seek in every way to contribute to the great preparation that the earth may be made ready to receive her King,-the Lord Jesus Christ. With the taking of each covenant and the assuming of each obligation a promised blessing is pronounced contingent upon the faithful observance of the conditions.” Emphasis added. (James E. Talmage, The House of the Lord, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1968], p. 84)

The part that I highlighted stood out to me. We are to contribute to preparing the earth for the Second Coming. No wonder I feel such a burning desire to raise children of high moral standards who will also continue to help prepare the earth. This is a great charge. Not only does it say to prepare the earth but it says “to seek in every way” to do this work.

What does this look like? How do we prepare the earth?

I think it means rejecting the world, raising children according to God’s standards and not the worlds, warning our neighbor, and keeping our covenants. When they talk about “raising the bar” in our devotion we truly must raise the bar, and we must do it every way we can.

A scripture has been running through by mind for the last several weeks it says,

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

I have come to realize that while I probably will not be asked to die as a martyr I can still lay down my life. How? I can voluntarily choose to lay down my worldly life with all its exciting enticements and entitlements and I can choose to live a godly life. I can choose to give up more of my fun and more of my ‘me time’ and I can choose to serve my family and my friends. I can bear testimony, I can research family history names, I can visit my neighbor, I can read to my children, I can study my scriptures, I can attend the temple, etc. I can voluntarily reject the excessive pull of the computer, the movies, the brain-candy books, the girls day outs, etc. and I can choose a spiritual life.

I think that as I do this I will be seeking in every way to contribute (as God teaches me line by line) to the great preparation that the earth must go through so that we can receive our King.

See also Elder Anderson's recent address on this subject.