"My Home as a Temple"

For my Marriage and Family class, I read an essay titled "My Home as a Temple" by Kristine Manwaring. This is the response I wrote to it.



Years ago, a friend’s mom brought her over to my house for a sleepover. Though neither my friend nor her mom was Mormon, both were at least somewhat religious. The mom made a comment that day that has stuck with me in the years since: she said that she loved coming to our home, because she could feel such a good spirit about the place. I lived there every day for years, and never noticed the ‘sweet spirit’ she said she felt the moment she walked through the door—especially not through all the stress, tension, mess, and rush that was there day in and day out. But when I thought about it, I could feel the Spirit filling our home, too, as we (especially Mom) worked to make the house a true home.

The Proclamation on the Family states that “parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their…needs, and to teach them” (Proclamation para.6). As parents, we must do for our children in our home what the Lord does for us in His house: raise, nurture, and instruct. We cannot do this properly without the Spirit being present, and the Spirit will not dwell where people are not living worthily. Our homes must become spiritual oases from the world, much as the temple is an oasis. For me, it’s hard to understand that my house can still be worthy of the Spirit if it’s not silent, if there’s a little bit of clutter on the table, or if dirty laundry isn’t quite done yet. The author, Kristine Manwaring, had the same struggle, trying to force her home to be as silent and pristine as the temple is. But with little kids and busy schedules, that simply wasn’t going to happen. She resented doing housework, feeling that it took away from her time to be peaceful and reflect on sacred things. Through talking with her neighbor, she learned that what she thought of as dreary drudgery could actually be a lifestyle patterned after the Savior’s, if her attitude were right. One phrase out of her essay really struck a chord with me: “When we care for the physical as well as the spiritual needs of our families, we are patterning our lives after the Savior” (Manwaring para.6).

I think the thing that I learned the most from this essay was summed up quite will by Manwaring. She says that we don’t need to try to force our homes to be as sacred as the temple—as silent, pristine, and utterly holy. “The sacredness,” she says, “is somehow already there” (Manwaring para. 7). We just need to focus on our attitude towards daily living—the cleaning, the cooking, the errands, the frenzy, and the fun—and make sure that w recognize the sacredness that is an integral part of a family-centered home.