I don't know about anyone else, but during General Conference there are always several talks that hit me right between the eyes. One of the between-eyes-hitting talks was from Elder Gary E. Stevenson during the Sunday afternoon session. He was talking about the temple, and the relationship and similarities that should exist between the temple and our homes, which are also meant to be sacred places.
He issued this challenge:
Recently, in a stake conference, all present were invited by the visiting authority, Elder Glen Jenson, an Area Seventy, to take a virtual tour of their homes using their spiritual eyes. I would like to invite each of you to do this also. Wherever your home may be and whatever its configuration, the application of eternal gospel principles within its walls is universal. Let’s begin. Imagine that you are opening your front door and walking inside your home. What do you see, and how do you feel? Is it a place of love, peace, and refuge from the world, as is the temple? Is it clean and orderly? As you walk through the rooms of your home, do you see uplifting images which include appropriate pictures of the temple and the Savior? Is your bedroom or sleeping area a place for personal prayer? Is your gathering area or kitchen a place where food is prepared and enjoyed together, allowing uplifting conversation and family time? Are scriptures found in a room where the family can study, pray, and learn together? Can you find your personal gospel study space? Does the music you hear or the entertainment you see, online or otherwise, offend the Spirit? Is the conversation uplifting and without contention? That concludes our tour. Perhaps you, as I, found a few spots that need some “home improvement”—hopefully not an “extreme home makeover.”
Whether our living space is large or small, humble or extravagant, there is a place for each of these gospel priorities in each of our homes.
I started thinking about my apartment, and about how I feel when I'm there, or about how people might feel when they come over. (I mean, other than the awkward feeling they might get when GH and I start making out right in front of them.) Here are some things I thought about:
1. Right now we have no pictures of the Savior on the walls. This is kind of lame of us.
2. We have a watercolor of the Logan Temple that someone gave us as a wedding gift, but I would like to print and hang one of the pictures Ed took of the temple during our wedding.
3. We have no wedding pictures printed or displayed yet.
4. I read my scriptures while Benjamin Linus stares down at me--creepily. He is also the last thing I see before I fall asleep. It's a lucky thing Jack Bauer is there too, over on the bookshelf.
5. The first thing I see when I walk into my apartment is a pile of boxes to be dealt with--items that need to be taken to DI, an Amazon order that needs to be returned, recycling that needs to be taken to the recycling bin at my work, papers that need to be shredded. In fact, there are a LOT of "need to be dealt withs" in my apartment. Pictures leaning against walls waiting to be hung, clothes waiting to be put away, laundry waiting to be done, letters waiting to be mailed, a big ol' Tupperware bin of GH's stuff that we haven't gone through since we moved in.
What I'm starting to realize is that the thing that is probably affecting me more than the lack of temple pictures and the excess of Ben pictures (and yes, one is excessive) is the clutter. Specifically, the clutter that nags me by its very presence and reminds me that there are things hanging over my head.
So. On Saturday, GH and I cleaned our apartment, or at least the visible-to-guests portion (baby steps). I hauled DI bags out to my car and even hung up the two framed pictures that I've been meaning to hang up in the dining nook for the last 8 months. Now I keep finding myself staring at the dining nook in admiration. It is my new favorite spot now that it's not surrounded by things like bags of stuff to be recycled. It is still, sadly, a wood laminate nook when you consider the table, chairs, and pantry/laundry room doors. It's the brown corner. Of course, I've also been meaning to get a nice bright tablecloth to counteract the Laminate Curse for the last 8 months. I thought I'd found a nice white clearanced tablecloth on Saturday at Bed, Bath & Beyond that would solve everything. The opened tablecloth looked like the crappiest polyester temple dress fabric ever. It went right back in the bag, and the tablecloth hunt continues. Will likely end up buying fabric and attempting my first tablecloth hemming project. Maybe something cute like this one by Amy Butler:
Point is, it was amazing how much of a difference clearing a few things out made. I suddenly wanted to spend lots more time in that spot because it was so neat and nice and uncluttered and there was nothing in it that made me feel guilty. So I need to start there, I think. And with a Jesus picture.
Did anybody else come to any realizations during your "virtual tour"?
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