2.72 A Godly Walk and Conversation

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends.

Great to have you with me. Today, let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Quick question for you at the start of today's episode.

When's the last time you walked inside the temple or around its grounds? What did that look like? Sound like?

Feel like? And what were you thinking? Okay, so maybe that's not one question.

It's like 17 questions. I get it. But welcome to our verse for today.

We been reading this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 20 through 22, as well as 2 Nephi chapters 19 through 23. And I promise we getting to 2 Nephi, but we going to keep going inside of Doctrine and Covenants section 20 a little bit further. This has been great conversation for my daughters and my wife and I as we have done scriptures this week because my daughters are starting to realize that Doctrine and Covenants section 20 has a lot of foundational pieces of the Church.

What does the Church look like? What do the operations look like? What's the purpose of the Book of Mormon?

What is it like to follow the prophet? Right? All these aspects.

What are the priests and teachers and elders do? And so Doctrine and Covenants, what we've kind of summed up inside of our family, is that Doctrine and Covenants is pretty much like a bunch of the lessons that you, members of the Church—because that's pretty much everybody, right? When you become a member of the Church, there are roles and responsibilities as a member of the Church.

There are things that we should be doing, even commandments from the Lord, as members of the Church. And our verse for today speaks into that in Doctrine and Covenants section 20, verse 69. It says: "The members shall manifest before the church, and also before the elders, by a godly walk and conversation, that they are worthy of it, that there may be works and faith agreeable to the holy scriptures, walking in holiness before the Lord." Now tying back to the beginning question here at the beginning of the episode, what is godly walk and conversation?

What does holiness look like to you? And if that's what you take out of this episode, then awesome. I think that'll take you down the road of savory salt all day.

For me, as I thought into godly walk and conversation, and then attaching the last phrase here, holiness before the Lord, I had the image of the other place I've heard holiness to the Lord, and that's in the house of the Lord. That's the temple. And so I've been thinking for my life, if I'm walking around and having conversations, I'm going to be in the house of the Lord.

Inside the temple, what am I focused on? What am I talking about? That has helped me to kind of consider this idea that the role of Church members is to show that they have faith and their works are agreeable, as it says in here, worthy of it, right?

Through a godly walk and conversation. I know that that something I been trying to focus on in my life is having a perspective that what I say inside the Church and the temple is closely aligned to what I say outside the Church and the temple. And that there aren't like two versions of Allen out in the world.

I hope that makes a little bit of sense. Does it mean that I never talk about any topics other than temple topics? No, that's not what I'm trying to say here.

What I'm trying to say is that I live my life inside the temple the same way I live my life outside the temple. And we could even reverse that to make it even more powerful. That I live my life outside the temple the way that I would live my life inside the temple.

That to me is a godly walk and conversation. I'd love to know what it means for you as you ponder and search what it means in your life. That's all for today, my friends.

Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave unto the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt.