Your children see the temple from the outside.
It's not often that you have an opportunity to take them inside.
Which is why we drove to Kansas City, to fulfill Mary's plan. (Last summer she insisted that we return when the temple was finished being built and take her inside.)
The temple becomes a spiritual center, a holy place of refuge from the world. It is a place to meditate on our eternal journey, make promises to serve God, and feel close to Him. After the building is officially dedicated, the temple is reserved as a place set apart from the world for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are striving to live the gospel of Jesus Christ and keep the commitments they have made to Him. Church members wear white while inside to symbolize equality and purity. With a few exceptions, the temple is a place for adults.
Which is why an open house is so fantastic for kids. After a temple is completed, but before it's dedicated, the building is open for public tours. Everyone is welcome! It's a wonderful opportunity to be all together as a family in the temple. And it's nice to have the temple demystified a little for your kids. (There's a good reason not everyone is invited inside a dedicated temple--it's hard for a place to be apart from the world if the whole world is there. But it certainly has the effect of making it all mysterious.) We attended a temple open house in Utah a couple of years ago. But not even David could remember it. So we figured we should make the effort to go to the one in Kansas City, especially since it (barely) overlapped with our spring break.
To make things even better (much much better) B and Le met us in Kansas City with their adorable kids. What a blessing that glad they came. They are so much fun and easy to be with. And everything is better with cousins. (Also, it was incredibly reassuring to spend time with parents who have some of the same struggles with their kids that we do with ours.) So good for the soul to be with them. And just look at these cousins...
It was wonderful to be in the temple together. Other temple open houses I have been to have been self-guided. This time we had a guide who walked us through. The good part about this was the celestial room. Instead of briskly walking through, we were invited to pause for a few minutes, even take a seat. Greg, David, Mary, and I all squeezed together on a sofa. The celestial room is a quiet, lovely place of meditation that symbolizes heaven, or, in Mormon words, living eternally with our families and God. So it was marvelous to be there for a few moments with my family, husband, son, and daughter. (Afterwards, David told us that was his favorite part because he felt warm inside.)
It is nice to have a place to escape the world.
It was nice to take my kids there.
