Protection for Your Children
When I moved to Utah ten years ago, my children were entering their teenage years. Having taught teenagers in seminary, I knew how critical the next years would be, for during these years we win or lose so many battles for the souls of men. The more I thought about the world my children were growing up in and the pressures and opposition arrayed against them, the more anxious I felt.
I went to the temple one afternoon to seek guidance about my children. The calm, loving spirit of the temple seemed to magnify my natural love for my family, and I found myself offering a deeply sincere prayer filled with desire for my children. I told the Lord I was willing to offer any sacrifice if he would protect my children from Satan's power and bless them with his Spirit until they could come to his house and receive their own endowment. I do not think I offered a unique prayer. It is the uttered and unuttered prayer of every true Latter-day Saint parent, and I think most parents would give the Lord the sacrifice he required.
As I sat in the temple, an answer was given in which the required sacrifice was revealed to me. I thought the Lord would demand some great thing for the blessing I was asking, and had it been some great thing, I believe I would have been willing to fulfill it. Often we are more willing to do the great things than the small, everyday acts of obedience and sacrifice that comprise living the gospel.
However, the Spirit simply whispered: "This is the sacrifice I ask of you. Be in this house frequently, constantly, and consistently, and the promised protection you seek, which this house has the power to bestow, will be extended to those you love." For that blessing alone I would be in the temple as often as I could.
At first I thought this counsel was unique to me, but I came to realize as I read and studied the scriptures that it is a promise with much broader application. I found this promise again and again in both the scriptures and in the words of our living prophets and apostles. It was not a special request and promise to me, but one that was extended to all the Saints in behalf of those they love.