Skip to main content

Reverence


ldsclipart.com

Sacrament meeting is the most important hour of the week. It is the reason we attend church. And yet, it seems to be when we are the most irreverent. During sacrament meeting, people are talking, texting, sleeping, eating, preparing lessons, reading scriptures, and playing with babies. What's worse is when these things go on during the actual passing of the sacrament, the time we should be thinking of Christ, His Atonement, and the covenants we made. It is the time to reflect on our week, repent of our mistakes, and promise to improve.

We should also be reverent during the talks. You all know how daunting it is to go up there. We should give the speakers our respect and attention, no matter how boring or "bad" the talk is. As John Bytheway notes in his talk "The Best Three Hours of the Week," we decide what we get out of church. There is no such thing as a bad talk; we can always come away with something if we are listening with the Spirit.

Reverence also applies to the rest of church, the temple, FHE, scripture study, and gospel discussions. It means being respectful through our words, actions, and appearance. When we are reverent, we show respect and love to Heavenly Father and invite the companionship of the Spirit, which in turn leads to personal revelation and strengthened testimony. This Primary song says it best:

Rev’rence is more than just quietly sitting:
It’s thinking of Father above,
A feeling I get when I think of his blessings.
I’m rev’rent, for rev’rence is love.
When I’m rev’rent, it shows in my words and my deeds.
The pathway to follow is clear.
And when I am rev’rent, I know in my heart
Heav’nly Father and Jesus are near.

("Reverence Is Love," Children's Songbook, 31).

Challenge: Be reverent and set the example for others.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Good article. Many of our meetings need more reverence. Members need to start by showing more respect for the building itself. Look up an article in the March, 1990 Ensign by Shirleen Meek. It is called "How We Improved Reverence". It has wonderful ideas from a variety of sources on how to accomplish this.
Mom
December 27, 2010 at 6:39 PM
Mrs. Sanchez said…
Love that children's song. We don't typically use the term "heavenly father," but love the concept and lyrics still.

Think of how many circumstances we show love through respect in relationships as well.

Our actions convey so much of our attitude towards a person.

Great insightful post!! *MWAH*
December 28, 2010 at 2:51 AM
Anonymous said…
we did our primary sharing time today- the theme was on reverence and reverence songs-DAD
January 24, 2011 at 12:06 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pray Always

Last week I shared powerful scriptures to remember when faced with temptation. However, the devil is very powerful as well. We need a lot more tools than just a scripture to defeat him. The most powerful tool available to us is prayer. Brigham Young said, “Prayer keeps a man from sin. Sin keeps a man from prayer.” Prayer keeps a man from sin The Lord admonishes throughout the scriptures to pray always to avoid sin: “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38) “Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work” (D&C 10:5) “Therefore let the church take heed and pray always, lest they fall into temptation” (D&C 20:33) “Pray always, lest ye enter into temptation and lose your reward” (D&C 31:12) “Pray always that you enter not into temptation, that you may abide the day of his coming, whether in lif...
3 comments
Read more

Music and Heaven

The Sunbeam lesson I taught today was "Music Makes Me Happy." Whether it be instrumental or voice, music can calm fear, brighten sorrow, and dispel anger, and it serves as a way to praise and pray to Heavenly Father. "There is no music in hell," said Brigham Young, "for all good music belongs to heaven." He also said, "If we could hear the music there is in heaven, it would overwhelm us mortals." We may not yet be able to hear heaven's music, but "never, indeed, do we feel so near heaven as when listening to the performance of some grand anthem, in which the angels themselves might fitly take their parts" (John Taylor). Good music and grand anthems take form in Church-related and classical music. "If you do not have a taste for it [classical music], listen to it thoughtfully," counseled President Hinckley. "If you do not like it the first time, listen to it again and keep listening. It will be something like going to ...
2 comments
Read more

Preach by the Spirit

ldsclipart.com I'm a writer, editor, and linguist. The words I choose and how I organize them are very important to me. That is why I prefer expressing myself through writing over any other method. I also enjoy public speaking because sharing my insights is exciting. I prepare my speeches, talks, and lessons in advance so I know exactly what I'm going to say. Church talks I always write out word for word to ensure I don't forget anything and so it's coherent and cohesive. As a teen, I would practice my talks until I practically had them memorized. Due to the increased focus on making the Sabbath a delight and sacrament meeting more spiritually fulfilling, our branch president told us he wanted us to have only an outline for our talks and to lean on the Spirit for guidance. Only once have I ever used just an outline. It was September 2006 in my college ward for a talk about how to prepare for general conference, a topic easy to expound with just notes. Two week...
3 comments
Read more