Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Beyond The Doors


I am LDS (Mormon)and have been "called" as a teacher for our Sunday morning Relief Society Women's meeting.  This post is one I wrote for a lesson I gave last month entitled Sealing Power and Temple Blessings, which is in regards to temple work.  For more information and understanding of the Mormon Temple and the service we do there or for more information about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Relief Society Organization or any other questions or information you might want, please visit www.lds.org or mormon.org. There is also a wonderful Movie now playing in Theaters called Meet the Mormons that you might find interesting as well.  I will be doing a post for each lesson I teach which will be the 2nd and 3rd Sunday's of each month.  If you should have any questions feel free to contact me, if you would like to leave a comment please do so on this page!  Thank you for following and visiting I will be doing my best to post something each week not just the lessons, but things of my journey that you might find of interest and I look forward to seeing you here :)  Now on with the blog........

My Family has struggled with tragedy.  It started with the death of my three year old daughter, and not to mention the parents, grandparents, and friends we've lost since then and in between; the last five years have been the worst with the death of my twenty year old son, my step-father three months later, my sister six months from that, then followed my father in-law, mother in-law and finally my 36 six year old step son who died this past July.  So, a few weeks ago when the phone rang in the early morning hours with news that my two year old granddaughter, was in Cooks Children's Hospital with seizure activity and very sick, I became scared, that old anxiety kicked in and I could hardly breathe.

The first thing I did after hearing, was call the temple for prayer, and then not only knelt and opened my heart in prayer for my precious baby girl, but also and most importantly thanked heavenly father that we have the temple, and are blessed with those special prayers on behalf of ourselves and our loved ones.  Immediately I had a sense of peace and though I was scared and knew she was sick and needed medical attention, I knew too that today was not her day to die and so I did my best with the help of my visiting teacher ( the women in the ward visit each other and help care for one another, each sister is assigned to another),  to maintain, stay calm and carry on.

Our lives on earth can be so hard; in a personal sense, our struggles, whatever they be, are great for each of us and sometimes they can even become almost unbearable.  Likewise, those that have passed on before us also may struggle.  If for whatever reason they missed the opportunity to accept and live the gospel of Jesus Christ while here on earth they might struggle with broken hearts, anxiety and fears; having gained a great knowledge in the spirit world.  Their peace, their salvation,  is now dependent upon the choices and charity of those living on earth to do family history work and attend the temple to perform sacred saving ordinances for them.  However, like us; come what may, they must continue to carry on, they must find hope, they must press forward with steadfastness.

Beyond the doors of the sacred building we call the temple lies the hope, the strength, the peace and enlightenment of our lives.  Beyond those doors lies Heaven on earth, if we will but open them.  And in so doing we not only open them for ourselves, we open them for those that live beyond the veil.  Thus our healing and our strength come as we loose ourselves in service.

It is imperative, not only to those how have died but to us all, to attend the temple, for our lives and living them depend upon gaining peace and strength, and our salvation, depends upon the salvation of those living in the spirit world with whom we must be joined in family ties.



With Love From Dixie 
See you next week.....
©Dixie Dawn Michelle Oct 2014 all rights reserved

**Reference Material:  The Teachings of Joseph Fielding Smith Chapter 17