A lovely moment

Thursday found the little girls and I on errands "down in Dallas". One of our stops was to the Dallas Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Just inside the door to the temple, near the waiting area, the church has a distribution center where church members can purchase supplies and services such as subscriptions to our church magazines or purchases of scriptures. Our business was in the center, so I explained to the girls that we would go in the doors of the temple to take care of our errand. Molly's disposition was of quiet excitement. As we walked in the doors of this holy and sacred place her entire countenance radiated reverent joy.

And Molly is rarely reverent

We walked into the center and Molly quietly found a chair. She sat, hands in lap, without a word as I spoke with the sales woman and took care of my purchase. As I turned to go I noticed Molly's behavior and was surprised. At first I wondered what she was wanting to "get away with", as lately Molly has been the persona of a mischievous toddler. But then I looked more closely at her face. She was being reverent. She was being GOOD.

I acknowledged Molly's stellar behavior and pointed out to her bustling and boisterous sister that Molly understood that the Temple is a place for reverence and respect. A special place. A place of eternal covenants and of eternal families.

Molly seems to know this.

As we walked around the temple grounds after our errand Molly quietly sang a children's song that goes like this:

I love to see the Temple
I'm going there someday
to feel the Holy Spirit
to listen and to pray

for the temple is a holy place
a place of love and beauty
I'll prepare myself while I am young
This is my sacred duty


In my heart I believe Molly feels at home in the temples of our church. She's visited another temple, and walked not just through its door but through its hallways to beautiful rooms within where families can be joined together for all eternity. Because Molly joined our family through adoption, we have had the privileged to be in such a holy house of worship together, in order for her life as one of the Grahams not to end with her mortality, but instead her place with us, as our daughter and sister, has been sealed on earth and also in Heaven by men holding sacred priesthood authority, for time and for all eternity. (to learn more about temples go here)

Molly understands this, in her own little way. And the respect and reverence she showed in the Dallas temple is evidence of that fact.