"Belonging"

Recently, I was sitting in the back row of a church sacrament meeting, watching the other members of the congregation sit together with their heads bowed. (My head eventually went down too.) This was a sacred meeting. It was made sacred by the ordinance being performed, and because of the reverence of those in attendance.  As we said "amen" in unison, I felt like I belonged to this group of people.  I didn't even know everyone in the room, but I belonged.  Even if we didn't know each other, we were similar.   Our common beliefs bring us together. For those in the room who were baptized, we were renewing those covenants we made at baptism. We were promising what was expressed in the sacrament prayers.  We were making an offering of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, in hopes that the Lord would accept our offering and bless us with his Spirit. I was making a personal offering, but as a group, we were making an even greater offering. There is power in the strength of many prayers made in faith.  There must be power in the strength of many saints covenanting in sacrament meeting together. Could this be similar to what the Nephites felt like as they covenanted together with the Lord at the time of King Benjamin?

In Mosiah 1-5, King Benjamin had the Nephites gathered together at the temple to give them a name to distinguish them as a group of righteous saints. They were willing to do what was required to be a part of this group; they were willing to enter into a covenant with the Lord.  The Nephites experienced a mighty change of heart, where they had no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. Their hearts were changed through faith in his name. They were now called "children of Christ". 

It must have been exciting to have been there!!! They took upon them the name of Christ as we do in our day.  The strength of belonging to each other and belonging to Christ would have been powerful!  Our sacred sacrament meetings give us the opportunity to continually re-commit to the Lord, his commandments and to always remember Him. By taking on us his sacred name We are His; we belong!

My family likes to sit towards the front on Sundays. I used to like that too.  But now I think the view from the back is pretty awesome.