During this remarkable period in Church history, when we've seen the number of operating temples increase nearly threefold in fewer than 20 years, we might reflect upon the need for personal worthiness in order to participate in and partake of temple blessings.

As the Savior drove the money changers from the Jerusalem temple, He declared: "It is written, My house is the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves" (Luke 19:46).

Money changers and others in ancient days defiled the temple by conducting sacrilegious activities there. Although these activities don't take place at temples today, some of us might develop a casual attitude toward our modern, sacred buildings if we do not approach temple attendance and temple work worthily and honestly.

President Spencer W. Kimball warned: "Holy temples may be defiled and desecrated by members of the Church who go into the temple and make covenants unworthily or, which they are not prepared or willing to accept and carry forward. When people go to the temple and then make light of its sacred principles, they are defiling it. When unrepentant people accept the holy ordinances without full determination to prove worthy of them, they are helping to violate the sacredness of the holy temple and they are desecrating holy places" (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 538).

And President Joseph F. Smith said: "Some may feel that if they pay their tithing, attend their regular meetings and duties, give of their substances to the poor . . . spend one, two or more years preaching the gospel in the world, that they are (free) from further duty. But the greatest and grandest duty of all is to labor for the dead" (Doctrines of Salvation 2:149).

Temple attendance should be a joyous occasion, for the Lord declared unto Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey in the Kirtland Temple: "Let the hearts of all my people rejoice, who have, with their might, built this house. For behold, I have accepted this house and my name shall be here; and I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house. Yea, I will appear unto my servants and speak unto them with mine own voice, if my people will keep my commandments and do not pollute his holy house" (Doctrine and Covenants 110:6-8).

Today as the Church continues to heed the call to build temples all over the world, it needs to ensure that its people are worthy to enter and perform the necessary ordinances for themselves and are able to make temple blessings available to all Heavenly Father's children.

Temples are literally houses of the Lord. They are holy places of worship where the Lord may manifest Himself to His people. Only the home can compare with temples in sacredness.

In addition to a place where sacred ordinances are performed, temples are places of peace and reverence. When we have crucial decisions to make, we can take our cares to the temple where we can receive spiritual guidance.

Sometimes the decisions we must make seem overwhelming, but in the peace of the temple surroundings, the dust of these distractions can settle, and the fog and haze can lift, and we understand things we could not before. We will find new ways to deal with our challenges. The Lord will bless us, and our labors in the temple will strengthen and refine us spiritually. (See True to the Faith, published by the First Presidency, 2004, pp. 170-173.)

President Ezra Taft Benson remarked: "In the peace of these lovely temples, sometimes we find solutions to the serious problems of life. Under the influence of the Spirit, sometimes pure knowledge flows to us there. Temples are places of personal revelation. When I have been weighed down by a problem or difficulty, I have gone to the house of the Lord with a prayer in my heart for answers. These answers have come in clear and unmistakable ways" (Teachings of Ezra T. Benson, p. 251).

Joy and happiness come from living the way the Lord wants us to live and from serving others. The Lord asks us to keep our lives pure so we are worthy to enter the temple and partake of its blessings. He asks us to seek His Spirit so we may be good examples to family members and others. Some friends or family members may not live according to the Lord's counsel. He asks us not to judge them, but to love them, seek appropriate ways to serve them and be a light unto them: "By this shall men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35).

Temple attendance and temple work provide eternal blessings to us and to our brothers and sisters.