Summary
In this 2024 FAIR Conference talk, Emma Ellis shares practical experiences and inspired counsel on how to teach children about the temple with reverence, clarity, and love.
This talk was given at the 2024 FAIR Annual Conference at the American Heritage School, Salt Lake City, Utah on August 8, 2024.
Emma Ellis is a Utah native, mother of three, and founder of the Instagram account Poherful, where she shares her love for the House of the Lord and encourages women to deepen their understanding of temple worship.
Transcript
Emma Ellis:
Teaching Children about the Temple
One beautiful Sunday morning before our sacrament meeting began, my son needed a diaper change. So he and I ended up waiting in the foyer for the bread in the water. After wrangling him out from under the side table for probably the third time, I looked over to thankfully see a magazine titled Temples.
My son loves the temple and whenever he sees one, he has to yell out to me, “Mom! A temple!” To keep him occupied, I quickly opened up the magazine and to no surprise, he immediately began loudly exclaiming, “Temple!” with each page turn. While he turned the pages, I would simply just point and state what was on each page.
By about the fifth page, he exclaimed, “Temple!” again. And I said, “Yeah, that is Jesus Christ’s house.” He paused, and then he looked down at the page again. Then he looked up at me and he said, “Jesus in there, Mommy?” I replied, “Yes, that is His house.” He turned the page. “Jesus Christ house,” he said, pointing to another picture of a temple.
At that moment, a statement from Elder Bednar rang through my mind:
“If we talk temple, temple, temple, we focus on the structure and we miss what matters most.”
A Primary child should hear the words House of the Lord more than he or she hears temple. Why? This can help take the focus away from the building and put it on the Savior.
Seeing Jesus in the Temple
I often wonder this with my kids and also myself: When we look at the House of the Lord, what do we feel? What do we see? What do we know?
Do we only see a structure? Or do we see Jesus Christ? Do we see Him in our covenants, or do we know who we are making covenants with?
Elder Allen D. Haynie said in his recent BYU Speeches talk:
We too often ignore the reality that all the symbolism in the temple points us toward Jesus Christ, His Atonement, and His role in bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”
Many of the challenges people have with not feeling what they want to feel in the temple stem from their failure to seek Jesus while participating in temple ordinances.
He is why we come to the temple. He is who our Father in Heaven desires us to meet in the temple. He is at the center of every symbol, every ordinance, every covenant, and every hoped-for blessing in the temple.
Seeking Jesus in the temple enables us to understand why we are in the temple, and why we should return.
I can testify to this truth from Elder Hanie’s statement.
Weekly Temple Worship
Two years ago, I made the commitment to attend the temple weekly with the purpose of wanting to learn. Each time I made the long drive to the nearest temple, I would pray and ask for help to not only be able to focus, but to see and hear what He wanted me to learn.
I began to see how He is our Advocate to our Father in Heaven, and that He is what makes it possible for us to even be able to make covenants with God.
I learned more about His name and the power in the significance of covenanting to do everything in His name.
I began to see Him in our covenants, in all the promises and all the words and teachings, in the symbols, and so much more.
Teaching through Example
Now, this is a special experience for me, but a special bonus began to happen that I did not anticipate.
My kids became a witness to my love of the House of the Lord. There were many occasions when they would wake up for school, come into the kitchen, see me in my Sunday clothes and say, “Are you going to the temple today, Mom?”
One morning I was getting my son ready for the day. I didn’t tell him I was going to the temple, but I was dressed to go, and he looked at me and said, “Mom, I go to the temple with you today? Please?”
Because of this, we would have a lot of conversations about the temple—just very, very simple ones.
They would ask me when I would go, what I would do when I go to the temple. And I would, in a very basic way, say that I help other people make covenants with God, and I am reminded of my covenants.
That would lead to a conversation of what a covenant is, and I would be able to testify that I love to keep my covenants, and that I’m grateful for them.
A Child’s View of Covenants
They would often see me folding my garments or getting them out of the dryer to wear, and they would ask me what they are and why I wear them.
I would simply say, “Because I covenanted to,” and I want to.
I would explain that God promised me blessings when I wore them and kept my covenants, but then I would testify that I love to wear them and that I’m grateful to wear them.
Talking Openly About the House of the Lord
For a long time I didn’t think that this had any effect. I just thought they were simple conversations that I would have with my kids. But I have come to realize that this is exactly what it is to teach our kids about the house of the Lord.
Now, I completely understand how sometimes it can feel overwhelming to know what we can talk about outside of the house of the Lord.
It’s a very sacred place and we want to talk about it respectfully. But if we don’t talk about it, we are doing a major disservice to our kids and our youth.
President Ezra Taft Benson expressed:
The temple is a sacred place, and the ordinances and temple are of a sacred character. Because of its sacredness, we are sometimes reluctant to say anything about the temple to our children and grandchildren as it can…”
As a consequence, many do not develop a real desire to go to the temple or when they go there, they do so much so without much background to prepare them for the obligations and covenants they enter into.
I believe a proper understanding or background will immeasurably help prepare our youth for the temple, and will foster within them a desire to seek their priesthood blessings—just as Abraham had.
Guidelines for Respectful Temple Conversations
I often hear, “I know it’s important to talk about the temple, but I don’t know what to talk about. And I’m nervous about saying something disrespectful or saying something that I shouldn’t.”
I had the same question when I began to attend the temple often. However, after much research and study, I collected some guidelines for myself and hopefully they can help you.
- If I covenant not to speak about specific things, I don’t.
- If it’s not published in an official Church resource such as General Conference, talk, scripture, or the Church’s website, I don’t talk about it.
- If I don’t know if it’s something I should discuss, I pray and follow the Holy Ghost.
There have been times where technically something’s okay to talk about, but I don’t feel good about it or that it’s appropriate to share. And so I don’t.
4. If I do talk about something, I do so in a respectful and sacred manner.
Resources for Teaching Children about the Temple
Now, thankfully, in this day and age, there are so many resources that can support our efforts in teaching our kids.
For example, here are four I frequently use and recommend. And I’m going to go through these slides pretty quick, so feel free to take any pictures of them. But also note that they’re in the Rover app.
So one: the Church has an official temple website that covers so many topics like temple garments, endowment ordinance, the sealing ordinance, and so forth. It’s one of my favorite things to reference.
But my personal favorite is the About the Temple Endowment section. It specifically lists the five laws we covenant to keep.
And this is not only a great reminder for ourselves to remember our covenants, but it’s also a great example of something that is appropriate to talk about outside of the temple.
Inspiring Talks and Manuals
The second reference is Elder David A. Bednar gave an incredible talk in May 2019 called Prepared to Obtain Every Needful Thing. He highlights different ways we can talk about the house of the Lord to our youth, and gives resources on what we can study to help with this too.
The third reference is BYU Speeches and BYU Women’s Conference talks. They give a lot of valuable information and these are personally some of my favorites that you can begin with.
And the fourth reference I’ll share is in the Come, Follow Me for Individuals and Families manuals. There’s a special appendix at the back that specifically discusses preparing your children for a lifetime on God’s covenant path.
I love this resource because it talks about covenants, priesthood, the house of the Lord, and more—but at a child’s level of understanding.
Real-Life Testimony of Temple Desire
Having conversations about the house of the Lord and the covenants we make is essential in today’s world.
My friend sent me an Instagram message one day and I loved it—the truths she shared through her experience.
She said:
“My 18-year-old daughter just scheduled her endowment. She isn’t sure if she’s going on a mission. She just turned 18 in May. When I asked her why she wanted to get her endowment, she said, ‘I’m not sure. I just feel like it’s the right thing for me right now.'”
And I have not been able to stop thinking about her words. When she left for college a few months ago, I can honestly say I wasn’t sure where her testimony was at—and she, with no prodding from anyone, decided she needed temple covenants in her life.
Youth Drawn to the Temple
Those covenants will help them to do all that the Lord needs them to do.
Our youth are excited and eager to attend the house of the Lord, and they are being drawn to do so. They know that it’s a special, sacred place because of what we do there, but also because of whose house it is.
So these are some of my cute young women that I was able to serve with as an advisor.
This night was a special night, and it’s one that I will always remember.
At the beginning of last year, the counselor I served with and I asked her class if they would like to be able to start to attend the temple every month together.
They were immediately ecstatic and were very excited to participate in this idea.
We did well for several months.
A Sacrificing Spirit
I’ve never missed a time to go.
Even when we were logistically unable to get an appointment, we gathered in our car with a lot of faith and made the 40-minute drive to see if we could still get in.
Many times our young women would say, “I don’t care how long it takes. I just—we’re just happy to wait.”
Then summer came and camp preparation began. Our Young Woman president announced that we would be having an activity that involved preparing camp supplies and asking for everyone’s support.
Sadly, this activity would land on the same day we would typically attend the temple, and there were no other days that month that we could reschedule to, we?
We told our girls that we all needed to support the president in this activity.
Our young women agreed, but they had a counterproposal.
They wanted to meet earlier, attend the temple, and make it back in time for the activity.
This meant that we needed to leave right after school. They would get home immediately to go to the activity, then home to do homework.
It would be a sacrifice, but they were eager to do it.
A Powerful Night of Faith
This night was powerful.
Each young woman, with their own personal grievances, heartaches, and trials—and faith—showed up with eagerness to continue their goal of attending the house of the Lord.
They know it’s a place of power, peace, service, and more. And they were willing to make the sacrifice because they know what happens there. And they craved it—the peace that they know, they feel when they attend.
They were such an example to me.
Teaching by Example
And I have found that being an example is also one of the greatest tools to teach.
One morning I shared in my Instagram stories just something fun that I had to do with my kids that talked about the house of the Lord.
And I expressed that lessons are important, but it’s not always about the lessons. It’s also just keeping it very simple.
I received a message from a follower that I think about often, and she said:
“When I was a child, we lived with my grandma for several years. She was an ordinance worker at the Jordan River Temple, and every week for three years I witnessed her prepare temple clothing, go to bed early, wake up at 3 a.m. for an early morning shift.
“I heard her talk about her experiences and friends at the temple. I knew she loved the temple and that it was important.
“She never taught a lesson, but her actions and obvious love—her temple worship—had stayed with me my whole life.
“By the way, I only have one memory of my parents going to the temple. I love the temple and I completely credit my grandmother in her example.”
A Message that Sticks
I love this—this message—because it’s a great reminder that whether we’re a parent, a leader, an aunt or uncle, a grandparent, or a friend, we are part of the lesson.
President Linda K. Burton expressed:
It is good to teach our children about the temple. It is better to prepare and expect them to make and keep covenants. It is best to show them by example that we cheerfully cleave to our baptismal and temple covenants.”
Another way—which is one of my favorite ways—to teach our children to learn about the temple is to show them how to look for Jesus, specifically through symbols.
Teaching Children to See Symbols
I was blown away when the kids said that it looked like a keyhole. Our youth are amazing.
If we start the practice of teaching children to seek symbols now and to seek Jesus in those symbols, then when they get the chance to receive their endowments, they will continue to look for Him everywhere—more than just in the structure, but in the doctrine, the words, covenants, and more.
I want you to take a few moments to look at the following symbols as an example of how we can teach our kids.
Due to time, I want you to look at them while I discuss what they mean.
I, I would love to hear your thoughts afterwards. If you guys have any thoughts, so come up to me if you have any.
Symbolism: Looking Upward
So one—the example of the first picture, and I’ll just cover a few—is spires. Spires help us to look up to Heaven. And when I see spires, I think of having a celestial view rather than an earthly view.
When we take a bird’s-eye view at life, we are gently reminded of why we’re here.
We are here to learn how to become like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and we are here to make covenants and learn characteristics and aspects to help us return to Heavenly Father.
It’s Worth the Effort
Sometimes attending or learning about the house of the Lord might feel like a lot of work—to not only do ourselves, but also help and lead our children.
But it’s so worth it.
I can’t imagine how the pioneers felt when they were instructed to build a Kirtland Temple, only to be forced to move away from it. And then they were instructed to build the Nauvoo Temple and were forced to leave that too, later.
They later found the arsonist set fire to the temple, and the tornado tore down some of the burned walls later on. It took a lot of effort, faith, and perseverance to continually build these temples while under a lot of persecution.
For example, while still in Nauvoo, shortly after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Saints resumed building the Nauvoo Temple, and they sacrificed and diligently worked to complete the temple.
Faith in Action: The Nauvoo Saints
In December of 1845, Church leaders and members began to administer temple ordinance endowments to other Saints in the attic of the unfinished temple.
They worked tirelessly to help over 5,500 individuals receive their endowments, before increasing opposition and persecution forced the Saints to leave Nauvoo.
The apostles also performed sealing ordinances to unite husbands, wives, and children for eternity.
And on February 4th, 1846, the first group of Saints departed Nauvoo for the Salt Lake Valley.
They were willing to do it because they knew the power of their covenants and the eternal blessings that come from attending the house of the Lord.
They were willing to do everything they could to receive those blessings and promises.
Why We Keep Teaching
In comparison, why do we attend and tirelessly teach our children about the house of the Lord?
Because we also know the power of our covenants with God and the eternal blessings that come from attending the house of the Lord.
It is worth every effort and more—to not only receive these for ourselves, but to encourage our children to do the same.
Elder Dale G. Renlund beautifully explained and emphasized why. He said:
By making and keeping temple covenants, we learn more about the Lord’s purpose and receive the fullness of the Holy Ghost. We receive direction for our lives.
We mature in our discipleship so that we do not remain perpetual, unknowing children. Rather, we live with an eternal perspective and are more motivated to serve God and others. We receive increased capacity to fulfill our purposes in mortality.
We are protected from evil, and we gain greater power to resist temptation and to repent when we stumble—when we falter, the memory of our covenants with God help us return to the path.
A Child’s Testimony
I hope we can all have the same perspective and realization my three-year-old son had when he looked at the picture of the temple and said:
“Jesus in there, Mommy?”
It is significant that the Savior chose to appear to the people at the temple. It is His house. It is filled with His power. Let us never lose sight of what the Lord is doing for us now.
He is making His temples more accessible. He is accelerating the pace at which we are building temples. He is increasing our ability to help gather Israel. He is also making it easier for each of us to become spiritually refined.
I promise that increased time in the temple will bless your lives in ways nothing else can.
And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Audience Q&A
No Q&A was offered in this discussion.
Endnotes & Summary
Emma Ellis shares practical experiences and inspired counsel on how to teach children about the temple with reverence, clarity, and love.
All Talks by This Speaker
coming soon…
Talk Details
- Date Presented: August 8, 2024
- Duration: 22:51 minutes
- Event/Conference: 2024 FAIR Annual Conference
- Topics Covered: Teaching Children about the Temple, Temple Preparation, Youth and Covenants, Seeing Jesus in the Temple, LDS Parenting, House of the Lord, Temple Symbols, Emma Ellis, FAIR Conference 2024, Preparing Youth for Temple Covenants
Common Concerns Addressed
Concern: How can parents talk about sacred things like the temple without overstepping boundaries or being too vague?
Summary: This talk acknowledges the uncertainty many parents feel about discussing temple worship with children. Emma Ellis offers simple, practical ways to talk about covenants, garments, and sacred symbols with clarity and reverence—helping children build real understanding rather than confusion or silence around holy things.Concern: Why does the Church emphasize temple worship so much?
Summary: For those who question the centrality of temples in Latter-day Saint worship, this talk offers a compelling, Christ-centered view of the temple as a place to draw near to the Savior. It reframes the temple not as an obscure ritual center, but as the House of the Lord, where covenants are made with Jesus Christ and personal discipleship deepens.Concern: Do children and youth really understand what covenants are—or are they just going through the motions?
Summary: This talk confronts the concern that young people are ill-prepared for temple covenants by showing how even the simplest, consistent teaching—paired with a parent’s example—can instill deep spiritual insight. Emma shares how open dialogue, even with toddlers, can lay the groundwork for a lifetime of covenant keeping.
Apologetic Focus
Topic: Temple symbolism and meaning
Concern: Some individuals feel confused or alienated by temple symbolism, believing it to be obscure, mysterious, or unnecessary.
Clarification: This talk models how to introduce temple symbols in simple, accessible ways—like teaching children to recognize spires pointing heavenward. Emma Ellis emphasizes that symbolism isn’t meant to obscure truth but to point us to Jesus Christ, reinforcing that every symbol in the temple is centered on Him and His redeeming mission.
Topic: Sacred vs. secret—appropriate boundaries for discussing temple worship
Concern: Critics often argue that the Church is too secretive about the temple, which can create distrust or discomfort, especially among youth.
Clarification: Emma offers a four-part framework to determine what can be shared outside the temple, guided by official Church resources, the Holy Ghost, and reverence. She demonstrates that faithful conversations can happen at home and in Church settings without violating sacred boundaries, encouraging openness rooted in spiritual respect.
Topic: Personal revelation and spiritual preparation
Concern: Some question whether temple experiences can be meaningful or spiritually enriching without deep theological training or institutional endorsement.
Clarification: Emma testifies of the personal growth that came from her weekly temple attendance, prepared by prayer and the desire to learn. She shows how individual seekers—parents, children, youth—can all experience revelation and spiritual insight when they approach the temple with humility and intent.
Topic: The importance of covenants in Latter-day Saint theology
Concern: Critics sometimes portray temple covenants as outdated, coercive, or merely ritualistic, lacking relevance or spiritual power.
Clarification: Through simple but powerful teaching moments with her children, Emma illustrates that covenants are not hollow tradition but spiritually binding promises with God. She shows that understanding and loving covenants transforms the temple from a building into a sacred relationship with Jesus Christ.
Explore Further
- Question: Does the Nauvoo Temple display symbols that are either occult or Masonic?
- Question: Isn’t the inverted five-pointed star on some temples really a symbol of evil?
- Question: Why is the Masonic symbol of the “All Seeing Eye” present on the Salt Lake Temple?
- Preparing Today’s Youth for Edifying Temple Experiences
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