102- 1/20/25

 Daily Devotion


I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the daily devotion of faithful people. The people who live their lives devoted to God, following His Gospel plan He has laid out for them. People striving for holiness in their lives. Mama and I talked just this week about both your grandpa’s growing up without a priesthood leader, or even a priesthood holder, in their homes. What drove them to stay true to their faith all these years. I think of Grandpa and Grandma Miller moving to Idaho as a young couple, with little to no support from their parents, and building a legacy of family and faith over decades of faithfulness. We were discussing this last night out at their home, and Graham said it best I think. He said “it’s a miracle.” It really is. 


This last week I was able to go and do an early morning endowment session at the temple. I was there a little early as I was having a hard time sleeping that morning. It was a neat experience to watch the temple “wake up” for a new day of temple worship. Temple workers were still filing in for their shift. Most of the stations, where temple workers quietly welcome you, were still unmanned. Though not a full session, I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of patrons there for that early morning session. It was a wide range of ages and stages of people. After the session, as I was sitting in the Celestial Room, I took a few minutes and observed those there who were reverently praying and pondering. One particular young man, who looked a little gruff in appearance with his unkept beard, arms folded and head bowed, sat there quietly in prayer for some time. I couldn’t help but wonder what was in his heart. What had brought him to the temple that morning? What ever it was, he was relying on the promises of God to find added strength and power for his everyday life.


As I’ve had that image of this young man praying and pondering in my head this week, it reminded me of Elder Gong’s General Conference address: Holiness to the Lord in Everyday Life.


All of you kids are so good about wanting to be in the temple often. Sometimes we go with heavy hearts in need of answers or additional peace, other times we go to serve our ancestors, and out of faithful obedience in following a living prophet we strive to increase our temple attendance. Each time we go, we see the words “Holiness to the Lord, The House of the Lord.”  These words have come to be more meaningful to me since President Nelson has encouraged us to study and ponder the words of the Kirtland Temple dedicatory prayer found in the 109th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. 

D&C 109:9 -That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord, that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord…


When we strive to be holy in our daily living, and then bring that offering of holiness to the Lord in His house (our incomings), the Lord promises to endow us with His power, power only obtained through Christ’s atonement, and His priesthood ordinances. This power allows us to leave His house armed to battle the world and the natural man tendencies we all face (our outgoings). No doubt it was this power that young man I saw in the temple left armed with.


Elder Gong taught: “Ours is a gospel of joy and holiness in everyday life … Holiness… invites us to infuse daily living with the sacred—to rejoice in daily bread amidst this world’s thistles and thorns. To walk with the Lord, we must become holy, for He is holy, and to help us become holy, the Lord invites us to walk with Him.”


“Holiness to the Lord makes daily living sacred. It draws us closer and happier to the Lord and each other and prepares us to live with God our Father, Jesus Christ, and our loved ones.”


Invitation - Consider what we are and can do, to “infuse” our “daily living with the sacred”? 


Mama and I love each of you so much, and are proud of all you are doing!


Love,


Dad



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