I noticed a lot of things in the temple this morning:
- I noticed different ways that Adam and Eve stood together. Sometimes they were side by side, sometimes they were protectively face to face, and sometimes Eve was standing in front of Adam or under his wing being guarded by him.
- I considered the chronological placement of the law of chastity—that it came after the law of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It occurred to me that prior to accepting the law of the gospel of Jesus Christ the culpability for breaking the law of charity is not as high as after accepting the gospel of Christ. More than that specific law was the realization that people at different points of knowledge and covenant are treated with appropriately variable levels of culpability. It’s another reason why we should “judge not.”
- I also realized that the things we can learn in the temple are not limited to the ceremonies and covenants themselves. We can also learn from our fellow patrons as we observe their actions and notice things such as difficulties they are dealing with or how they interact with others or with their environment. For example I observed how one man assisted the man next to him who apparently had Downs syndrome (they probably came together).
- I also had some thoughts about fostering a regular discussion group where we could talk about political topics with an expectation of sharing drivers perspectives respectfully. In fact we would have a rule that if we all agreed on a given topic we would very quickly table the subject since there’s little to learn if we already have consensus.
After the temple I hurried to the fall cleanup service activity—at least as long as I could stay before I had to take Alex to work.
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