Honoring Our Covenants
Prayerfully study this material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an active part of your own life.
Visiting
teaching is an expression of our discipleship and a way to honor our
covenants as we serve and strengthen one another. A covenant is a sacred
and enduring promise between God and His children. “When we realize
that we are children of the covenant, we know who we are and what God
expects of us,” said Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles. “His law is written in our hearts. He is our God and we are
His people.”1
As
visiting teachers we can strengthen those we visit in their efforts to
keep their sacred covenants. By doing so, we help them prepare for the
blessings of eternal life. “Every sister in this Church who has made
covenants with the Lord has a divine mandate to help save souls, to lead
the women of the world, to strengthen the homes of Zion, and to build
the kingdom of God,”2 said Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
As we
make and keep sacred covenants, we become instruments in the hands of
God. We will be able to articulate our beliefs and strengthen each
other’s faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
From the Scriptures
From Our History
The
temple is “a place of thanksgiving for all saints,” the Lord revealed to
the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1833. It is “a place of instruction for all
those who are called to the work of the ministry in all their several
callings and offices; that they may be perfected in the understanding of
their ministry, in theory, in principle, and in doctrine, in all things
pertaining to the kingdom of God on the earth” (D&C 97:13–14).
Relief
Society sisters in Nauvoo, Illinois, USA, in the early 1840s helped each
other prepare for temple ordinances. In the ordinances of the higher
priesthood that Latter-day Saints received in the Nauvoo Temple, “the
power of godliness [was] manifest” (D&C 84:20).
“As the Saints kept their covenants, this power strengthened and
sustained them through their trials in the days and years ahead.”3
In the
Church today, faithful women and men all over the world serve in the
temple and continue to find strength in the blessings that can be
received only through temple covenants.
For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.
What Can I Do?
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How do my covenants strengthen me?
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How am I helping the sisters I watch over to keep their covenants?
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© 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All Rights Reserved
© 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All Rights Reserved
