On a recent fifth Sunday, our ward had a discussion about what it means to be “temple-bound.” I’ve been pondering our discussion ever since.
We live in the stake mentioned by Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the April 2024 general conference where our stake presidency encouraged us to be “home-centered, Church-supported and temple-bound.”
Like Elder Soares mentioned in his talk, there are multiple meanings of the word “bound.” First, “it means focused on a direction,” so headed to or aiming for the temple.
My husband and I are temple ordinance workers early each Saturday and have seen an increase in temple attendance, even in the wee hours of the morning. We also have been temple-bound more often, outside of our temple shift.
“Bound” also means fastened to, secured by or placed under a moral obligation, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Elder David A. Bednar, also of the Quorum of the Twelve, taught: “Covenant promises and blessings would not be possible without our Savior, Jesus Christ. He invites us to look to Him, come unto Him, learn of Him and bind ourselves to Him through the covenants and ordinances of His restored gospel.”
Being temple-bound, therefore, also means being bound by our temple covenants to the Savior.
President Russell M. Nelson has repeatedly emphasized the temple and the covenants we make there. He reminded us: “The temple lies at the center of strengthening our faith and spiritual fortitude because the Savior and His doctrine are the very heart of the temple. … His essential ordinances bind us to Him through sacred priesthood covenants. Then, as we keep our covenants, He endows us with His healing, strengthening power. And oh, how we will need His power in the days ahead.”
As we bind ourselves to Him, we come to know Him, and our desire to be like Him increases.
In our fifth-Sunday discussion, some of our ward members also noted that “bound” can mean boundaries. For example, in sports, there are inbounds and out-of-bounds. In nature, rivers can heave themselves beyond their bounds. Temple-bound, then, can also mean that our covenants — and the temple garment — remind us to keep our actions within appropriate bounds set by the Lord. There is safety and peace in staying inbounds.
Being bound to the Savior does not mean hard times don’t come, but that binding can help us through those times. My husband and I have buried multiple children. It is a gut-wrenching, anguish-filled, dark time, a time when I could not see or feel the light.
Having made covenants that bind me to Christ, however, has helped me do the things I know I need to do — read scripture, pray, go to the temple. It has been my covenants, binding me to the Savior, that have gotten me through the darkest times of my life. Hand over hand I go, pulling myself along the iron rod, through the mists of darkness, knowing that the darkness will not last. I know that one day, the light will return — and it does.
One of my very favorite hymns, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” sings of having our wandering hearts bound to Christ. “Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wand’ring heart to Thee.”
As Brooke A. Robertson taught in a BYU devotional, we can think about the Lord’s fetters not as burdens or punishment but as covenants that keep us bound to a loving Savior.
“The fetters that bind our otherwise wandering hearts to the Lord are fashioned from the Savior’s goodness. These are not heavy iron chains. They are covenants and ordinances that bind us to Him and His pure love and selflessness in the most healing embrace we can imagine and draw us into His warmth and safety,” she said.
I can’t imagine anything more comforting than being held in the Savior’s loving embrace, bound to Him and His goodness through love and covenants, willingly made and kept to the best of our mortal ability. To keep that connection strong, I will continue to be “temple-bound,” which really means I will continue to be “Christ-bound.”
Originally published in the Church News