I am speaking at a friends baptism tomorrow and I wanted to make sure that I said something that was worth while instead of the spirit is like a glove and baptism is a remission of sins standard. Here is what I came up with, which will probably be edited down for time sake but you all get the general idea.
As a parent I can see how my children love some things that are faily simple. My daughter loves to color on anything she can find and things that to get married a prince and a princess dance. It's a simple understanding to her. My son is at the stage of simple imitation. He will bang his head on mine and say ouch if he seems me and jenalee do it, he will pick up a broom or mop and try to sweep the floor if he sees me do it, he will wave and say hi if I do. As a kid I loved simple things too. One of those things was getting the mail. I used to love to go to our box, open it up and reach inside. As a kid it was thrilling to get a letter addressed with my name on it. My very own name not my parents name or sisters name or anyone else. Mostly I just wanted to see if there was a CD in there from mail order.
Life is a lot like getting the mail. Sometimes there is some very special mail addressed to the mailboxes of our hearts and minds. You were sent some of this mail by a special person called by Heavenly Father to serve at Temple Square. You got more mail from family, friends and missionaries. This special mail was the gospel of Jesus Christ and just like postal mail it is going to require action.
After we pull the mail out we shut the box and walk to the house. Some house have various fences and you have to go through the gate along the path to get to the house. You have picked up your special mail and gained your testimony. Now you are ready to walk through the gate. The gate you are entering is baptism. You have learned about what baptism is through the mail that was sent to you. I want to talk more about the gate of baptism leading to the house.
One of the first things that you notice about some of the old iron gates is they have a big letter on them. If they dont have a gate they have a screen door that has a letter on it as well. This stands for the last name of the family. The gate of baptism bears two symbols.
First it bears CTR or Choose the Right. I was just off my mission and went to a meeting with the president of what was then Ricks College now BYU-Idaho. President David A Bednar spoke of free agency and choosing the right. He told those of us there that most people know we have free agency meaning we have the right to choose. He then said that little people know we use that agency when we enter the gate of baptism and convenant to choose the right so we may always have his spirit to be with us. We have then promised we will always choose the right and have used our free agency already.
The second name that is symbolized on the gate of baptism is that of Jesus Christ. When we enter we take upon our own selves his name. Just like our last names we first of all belong to that family or covenant, and second reflect on the name of that person or family.
As I said before postal mail requires action so does this special mail and so does this covenant. That same president of BYU-Idaho I listened to again spoke just a month later at the starting of my first semester of college. He again gave a part of the same speech in conference after he was sustained as one of the twelve apostles Elder David A Bednar. He spoke of his feelings of personal weakness to fill his new calling. He said quoted a scripture from Jacob. “Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things” (Jacob 4:6–7). Then he said "Brothers and sisters, please pay particular attention to the word grace as it is used in the verse I just read. In the Bible Dictionary we learn that the word grace frequently is used in the scriptures to connote a strengthening or enabling power: “The main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ. “… It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts” (p. 697).
Maybe it is because with Christ we share his name and anything we do bears that name. Maybe because we are weak and we sin and it also bears his name his grace then becomes our enabling power to repent or to do the task that is required. With this enabling power this allows us to continue up the path or walkway into his house, the temple and into his kingdom if we use it and strive to keep our covenant.
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