IS EVERY INTERACTION AT CHURCH A TEMPLE RECOMMEND INTERVIEW?

“Every interaction at church isn’t a temple recommend interview, our job isn’t to determine worthiness!”

My dear friend, a ward YW president, brought this up during ward council where the group was discussing how to create a place of belonging and safety for all to worship the Lord.

The bishop’s counselor suggested they put the phrase on t-shirts.

I think it’s safe to say, unless you happen to be the bishop, none of our interactions should be temple recommend interviews. Not in our heads, and definitely not out loud.

In nearly every single healing interaction we see in the Savior’s ministry, we see the truth of this.

The Pharisees, forever holding temple recommend interviews, slowed down the Savior’s work, as they peppered him with comments that started with “BUT… “

Is it just me, or do you sense an internal sigh in the Savior’s tone as you read how he patiently responds with questions that often turn the focus back on the one asking the question?

I think it is very telling that the first and most important commandment, is where OUR focus should be. Loving God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind. It is a complete personal plan for divine guidance as we learn to become like Him.

The second, is our responsibility to others. To love them as though they were us. He didn’t say love your neighbors like you want to be loved, HE said love them as yourself.

Not a hint of responsibility for making sure OTHERS are following the temple worthiness guidelines.

However, we have been deputized to do proxy work for the Lord. To love and create unity with our neighbors. SO much so that they ARE actually part of us.

When we do the Spirit of the Lord will flow like a current through all of us and we will each know that sweet feeling of love from and belonging to the family of Our Heavenly Parents.

We can do this now, no temple recommend interview needed. - Allison

WEDDINGS

This was the happiest and most important day we have shared as a family.

The wedding of Devin and Jake was literally full of loved ones who flew from all over the world to celebrate their marriage. It was a perfect day.

Many of the people pictured here are not active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and some are not members at all. WHAT IF they had purposefully not come to the wedding because they didn’t want anyone to think they approved of where (or how) the happy couple were getting married?

I hear about so many members who question if they should go and support the weddings of their LGBTQ family or friends.

What if some of these people in this wedding photo had decided not to come to this traditional LDS temple wedding because they were worried about the message their attendance would send? Was their attendance ever interpreted by us to mean that they agree with our beliefs and where the marriage was taking place? Or did it simply mean that they love my family? Without each of them, would this photo still be a reminder of a perfect day, or would the holes of those missing loved ones forever remind us of those who stayed away because of differences in beliefs?

I am grateful for those, not of our faith tradition, who waited on the grounds of the temple as my baby was sealed to her honey inside, and then joined us on those gorgeous stairs for a priceless memory of our greatest day ever - Allison