Building a Palace

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right, and stopping the leaks in the roof, and so on; you knew that those jobs needed to be done, and so you are not surprised. But, suddenly He begins knocking the house around in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense to you. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of-He is building a new wing here, putting an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You though you were going to be made into a decent little cottage, but He is building a palace."

-George McDonald


This has been a week of spiritual, soul-searching experiences. On Thursday my Mom came over to watch Noah so Mark and I could take Dev, Sam, and Ty to the Draper Temple open house. We were a little worried when Sam refused to sit through the 3 minute movie they presented at a church house down the road from the temple. But, once we got on the bus and then went into the temple, all three boys were mesmerized. It was so neat to see. Sam carried his little pamphlet, open, into each room so that he could find the exact rooms that were shown. Devin said his favorite part was the Celestial Room, Sam said his favorite part was the Celestial Room, and the mirrors in the sealing room. Ty said his favorite part was the "sparkly lights, and dancing"...confusion between the chandelier and a disco ball? :) The tour went quickly and afterward we took them to The Mayan for dinner. My Mom said Ty will forever associate the temple with plastic trees, fake birds, and people diving into water. Oh, well. It was a fun day.

Today I spoke in sacrament meeting on self-reliance and the talk in this months Ensign by Elder Ballard. I was surprised that he focused mainly on spiritual self-reliance, and it was a wonderful topic for me to study. The first thing Elder Ballard talked about was knowing that we are children of God and that we are loved by Him. I found the quote by George McDonald in a talk by Sister Margaret Nadauld and thought it was so good. God knows just what he is doing with us, even if we don't quite understand. Life may hurt sometimes, but for good reason. He is making palaces out of us. And I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind looking like a temple! :)