No Fear

I was reading this evening in Ezekiel and noticed a scripture that I had highlighted way back when, I don't remember. It was talking about the terrible things that the children of Israel had done to the temple, and the consequences the Lord was about to bring to them as a result of their unrighteousness. And the note that I wrote to the side was something like "Don't attend unworthily." Now I'm not sure if I wrote that myself as how I interpreted it or if a religion or institute teacher put that into my head. It could have gone either way. And the bare facts of it are that it is true. We should not attend the temple unworthily. And certainly shouldn't be doing the whoredoms and the worshiping of other gods that the children of Israel were doing. And I'll also say that it is true that we can have our other gods that might not necessarily be carved in stone, such as various worldly pleasures, and we certainly need to avoid putting anything before the Lord. However, the interesting feeling I had as I read the scripture this evening wasn't that I need to strive to live more worthy of the temple's blessings and straighten up all of my loose ends, although I have had those thoughts recently. Rather, as I read the verse, I remembered the many times that I have attended the temple recently and in the past where I have felt a very special peace in the temple. And the thoughts that came to my mind are not to fear. I know when I first went to the temple I was very nervous about living perfectly and was analyzing my life to death--literally a spiritual death--and couldn't have that peace. But after much tribulation have come the blessings of peace. I'm hopefully better, closer to perfection than I was 10 years ago when I first was preparing to go, but I believe that even then if I had been able to remove the fear, replace with love of the Lord and understanding of His goodness, I could have felt that wonderful peace that I feel now when I attend. Because the temple really is an amazing place.