I'll Covenant With My Father

~We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.~

Walking up to the Provo temple this morning, I was admiring the stunning pink roses that line the entire sidewalk leading up to the temple. As I was walking, I noticed this one white rose amidst all of the pink ones. Just one, pure, white rose. Since I was heading into the temple I didn't have my phone with me to take a picture (I ran back out to my car when I was done in the temple to get it and then back up to the temple to take this picture), so all I had was the mental image of this scene to mull over as I waited for my turn in the baptismal font.

I began to consider the metaphor here as I sat at the font, waiting for my turn to be baptized in proxy for those who have passed beyond the veil. I began to consider all of the beautiful pink roses as us, the children of God. And then, more specifically, those baptized into God's kingdom. I began to wonder about the significance, then, of this single white rose. How could one stand out as this rose had? Especially in Provo where there are thousands of beautiful pink roses all around us?

The temple. Of course.

I've now been attending the temple for 73 consecutive weeks, and I've definitely seen the blessing in my life from that service... Though not exactly in the way I had expected. See, when I began attending every week, I knew I would see blessings. I had expected those blessings (or, more specifically, *that* blessing) to be the single blessing that every Provo Latter-day Saint and BYU student hopes and prays for: marriage. It made sense to me. If I'm in the temple all the time, The Lord will see how honest and excited I am to make eternal covenants with him and begin the chapter of my life where I can fulfill my divine potential here in this life by raising an eternal family in righteousness.

I am still very much single. Even after 73 consecutive weeks of dedicated service.

But I've received a blessing just as important and considerably more unexpected, as far as I'm concerned. I've learned what it means to be that one white rose among all the pink ones. This gospel has a lot of rules and guidelines, and we as members tend to see that as a checklist of things to accomplish in order to earn a ticket into the celestial kingdom.

It's not a checklist. It's a lifestyle.

Attending the temple every week has motivated me to live worthy of my temple recommend so that I can continue serving, every week, those who have passed on. Weekly attendance has put more pressure on me to always live worthily. I've even been in situations in the last several months where I've actually told the people that I was with that I needed to stay worthy of my temple recommend so that I could attend the following week, and consequently adjusted our activities in order to better stay in accordance with the lifestyle that The Lord would have me (and us) live. 

President Uchtdorf provided a twist to one of our common religious phrases that I've taken a liking to in the last several months. He suggested that in addition to the acronym CTR standing for "choose the right", it should additionally represent holding a "current temple recommend". This is how we differentiate ourselves as that pure white rose amidst the thousands of beautiful pink ones. We *always* live worthy to enter the house of the Lord, and make an effort to live the covenants we've made as a lifestyle and not as a checklist. We must internalize those covenants so that they are not only a part of us, but in fact, the *whole* of us. That those covenants, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, becomes who we *are* and not just what we *do*.

This is the Lord's true Church restored in these Latter-days by the prophet, and one of my heroes, Joseph Smith. The priesthood keys have been restored so that we can attend the temple and make and keep sacred covenants with The Lord so that we can some day return to live with Him in joy for eternity. I know it's true.

The gospel is such a blessing!