Members Should Live According to Temple Standard, Elder Whiting Says
“We are each made of the finest materials, and we are the miraculous result of divine craftsmanship. . . . Gratefully, the temple standard that we are asked to meet is not that of perfection, although we are striving for it, but rather that we are keeping the commandments and doing our best to live as disciples of Jesus Christ.” —Elder Scott D. Whiting of the Seventy
High standards of excellence apply to temples and to Latter-day Saints' own lives, said Elder Scott D. Whiting of the Seventy.
He recounted an experience he had while coordinating the Laie Hawaii Temple open house, rededication, and cultural celebration.
A few months before the renovation was finished, he toured the temple with Elder William R. Walker, executive director of the Temple Department, members of the Temple Department and the general contractor, among others. As they walked through the temple, one member of the Temple Department found some seemingly minor flaws: grit on some walls and a crooked square in a leaded glass window in a remote part of the temple. The contractor was given the charge to re-sand and buff the wall and replace the window in order to meet “temple standard.”
Elder Whiting went through the temple after its completion and found that the defects had been corrected.
“Why would walls with a little grit and a window with a little asymmetry require additional work and even replacement when a few human eyes or hands would ever know? Why was a contractor held to such high standards?” he asked.
“As I exited the temple deep in thought, I found my answer as I looked up at the exterior and saw these words, 'Holiness to the Lord, The House of the Lord.'”
He continued, “I learned that even though mortal eyes and hands may never see or feel a defect, the Lord knows the level of our efforts and whether we have done our very best. The same is true of our own personal efforts to live a life worthy of the blessings of the temple.”
Church members need to view their lives in a manner similar to how they view the temple: those parts of their lives not in symmetry with the commandments need correction. “We are each made of the finest materials, and we are the miraculous result of divine craftsmanship. However, as we move past the age of accountability and step onto the battlefield of sin and temptation, our own temple can become in need of renovation and repair work. ... Gratefully, the temple standard that we are asked to meet is not that of perfection, although we are striving for it, but rather that we are keeping the commandments and doing our best to live as disciples of Jesus Christ.”
