Deleveraging

What a reversal of course! Just last year, my mailbox was inundated with offers for new credit cards, including from American Express (my wife has an AmEx, but I don't). Now, however, comes the news that AmEx is paying some of their customers $300 to pay off balances and close their accounts. I guess they're targeting customers that are at a higher risk of default, figuring maybe with some incentive AmEx can avoid being one of their creditors when the inevitable defaults follow. A brave new world, indeed.

Temples

A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to enter two temples on the same day. In the morning, I was with my sister, her husband, and other family members and close friends as their daughter was sealed to them for time and eternity in the Salt Lake temple. What a beautiful ceremony that was! I was so grateful my sister and brother-in-law were blessed to find a selfless birth mother who would entrust her daughter to them, and I am sure they will try hard to be the best parents they can be, and to raise her up in light and truth.

Then, that afternoon, I was able to return with my children to the Draper, Utah temple, which has not yet been dedicated, for a tour. I was able to explain to them about the purpose of temples and what I had done that morning.

I asked each child what their favorite part of the temple was, and then why.

S: "The bride's room. It was so beautiful, and I could imagine myself in there, the center of attention, getting ready to be married."

J: "The room with all of the chandeliers and lights [Celestial room], because it is so beautiful and makes me think of being with Heavenly Father.

L: "The pond." Why? "Because it had water and all of those cows." I surmised that she was referring to the baptismal font, held up by carvings of twelve oxen representing the twelve tribes of Israel.

Anyway, after I came home that night, while contemplating my gratitude for my own family and temples that seal us together as families and allow us to commune more closely with Diety, I wrote the following:

God, who guarded ancient Israel
With a cloud and shining flame,
Once again shall keep His people
In a house built to His name.

In the tops of holy mountains
Is His habitation raised.
Come, ye children of the promise,
Enter in and sing His praise.

May our cov'nants be recordedl
Seal us, Lord, beyond the veil,
Bound by sacred priesthood power,
Though our mortal flesh should fail.

Then, with children linked to fathers,
Mighty Michael at the head,
May we gain again thy presence,
Father, Lord of quick and dead.