I love to see the temple
I spent much of my life learning how to make myself as worthwhile as possible…
I don’t think anyone explicitly taught me that my worth is determined by what other people think… It’s something I just assumed I guess, but I put a lot of energy into trying to control what others think, trying to overcome/hide my struggles and imperfections.
Now I’ve spent the last decade or so trying to unlearn that.
Because I finally admitted that a mask of perfection is heavy! …and that I prefer to trust my worth is independent of my outcomes, whether positive or negative.
Our divine nature has nothing to do with our personal accomplishments, the status we achieve, the number of marathons we run, or our popularity and self-esteem. Our divine nature comes from God. It was established in an existence that preceded our birth and will continue on into eternity.
Rosemary M. Wixom
Our worth is like the temple :)
Gaby, a friend of mine recently shared an analogy that helped me understand this more. While sitting outside of the Salt Lake temple, she felt a connection to its current closed state — it’s closed due to COVID and due to construction/renovation.
We can all relate to the temple’s isolation caused by COVID. And at different points in our lives, I think we can also all relate to being under construction. What Gaby pointed out is that while near the closed temple she was still able to feel close to God :) …that in its state of isolation and painful change the temple is not worth any less. It’s still a temple, and it can still help us connect to our Heavenly Parents :)
I can see the unchanging worth of the temple, and I want to see it in myself too. I frequently forget it, but I think I’m getting better at remembering :)
As we build and maintain these temples, we pray that each of you will build and maintain yourself.
Russell M. Nelson
My recent HWN was in hearing this analogy that helps me see my worth :)
p.s. Since my last post, I drove back to Utah from California where I was for the holidays :) It was hard coming back to the cold weather! At least I got this nice sunset on the drive though — loved seeing the contrasting colors ahead of and behind me.
I also published a couple websites that I made in my coding bootcamp if you’d like to check them out.
- Toilet Surfing (solo project, based on Couch Surfing) designed to help people find and book toilets to use :)
- GoodTrees (group project, based on GoodReads) meant to help people find, share, and review good trees to climb ;)
Those are awesome site ideas!