Temples and Resolutions—The Power of Divine Identities, Foreordinations and Celestial Desires

Like many of you, I find myself at this point in the new year taking one last look over a pile of Christmas cards and letters highlighting family members’ activities and accomplishments during the past year.

New Year's resolutions . . . again?

If that weren’t enough to fill our cup, our year-end holiday “rituals” include attending and reading social media posts about our grandkids dizzying array of end-of-year activities, from Ameila’s (age 16) tennis match, to the Wheelwright brothers’ (Ben (17), Lincoln (16), Peter (14), and Charlie (12)) football playoffs, to Landon’s (16) state cross-country meet and choir concert, to Addie (14) and Claire’s (12) orchestra concert (violin and cello, respectively) and Eliza’s (11) year-end concert (to name just a few). Talents developed, milestones achieved, even accidents and illnesses over come or endured—the stuff of life. Clearly (given their prominence in said cards and letters), such activities—what many of our new year’s resolutions focus on—are important to grandparents, parents and children alike. Which brings us to that much-maligned new-year tradition—the “Resolution”!

In a December 27, 2024 Wall Street Journal column typical of many such commentaries, Oliver Burkeman (quoting a “psychotherapy pioneer”) counsels readers to focus on achievable goals (what he calls “radical doability”): “Let 2025 be the year when you finally stop trying to become a different kind of person and instead start doing a few things differently: one message to a friend, one meditation session, one workout. Not later, but right now, in the only lifetime any of us ever get.”[1] At our Thanksgiving celebration last November, our son Joseph had each of his siblings and their spouses who were present identify character traits their children had demonstrated in the previous year, which he typed onto labels and organized into a type of floral arrangement for our dinner table. The following representative sampling from those labels, for me at least, belies the belief that it is futile to “try and become a different kind of person”: committed, full of love, creative, hardworking, funny, determined, brave, affectionate, happy, helpful, courageous, optimistic, self-disciplined, full of faith, kind, forgiving.

While so-called “self-help” experts in psychology and psychotherapy have their place, when it comes to making goals or resolutions—ultimately choosing what we want to do and become during our mortal sojourn on this earth, nothing is more important to devout members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (not to mention sincere believers in God, Yahweh, Allah or even in a higher power generally[2]) than the perspective derived from the answers their faith provides to the so-called "big questions" in life about our origin, identity, purpose, morality, and destiny. “Where did I come from?”, “Who am I?”, "Why am I here?", "How should I live?", and "Where do I go after this life?"[3] What follows is a brief look at each of these five “big questions” from the point of view of LDS temple ordinances and doctrine, as well as a few personal examples of how the temple can help us at the crossroads of our lives.

Divine origin—“Where did I come from?” or “Whose am I?” Temple ordinances, properly understood—from the anointing (to become, in the words of John the Beloved, “‘kings and priests” and queens and priestesses ‘unto God and his Father’ (Revelation 1:5–6; 5:10)”[4], to the symbolic role and example of Adam and Eve in the endowment instruction[5] to the sealing ordinance[6]—begin and end with the simple but life-altering truth declared in The Family: A Proclamation to the World, that each of us “is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine [origin and] nature.” Truly, “exaltation is a family matter.”[7] In other words, when we think of God’s Plan of Salvation for all of His children, of which we receive an overview in the endowment and sealing ordinances[8], we should think of its Authors—our Heavenly Parents and our intimate, familial relationship to Them—literally Their spirit sons and daughters.[9]

Divine identity—“Who am I?” Habitually thinking about ourselves as beloved spirit sons or daughters of heavenly parents who we have the divine potential to grow up to be like, as President Russell M. Nelson taught, “affects almost every decision you will ever make.”[10] But what does that mean? What and how does the temple teach us about our real identity? In the temple endowment, we are reminded about the pre-mortal rebellion that Moses described in Moses 4:1-4 and John the Beloved unfolds in the Book of Revelations, where he describes the mighty archangel, Michael, who, with “his angels,” “fought” and prevailed “against the dragon,” that is, Lucifer, “the accuser of our brethren” who “accused them before our God day and night.” (Revelation 12:7, 10). Michael, we know, was the male spirit child of God who became Adam, who “stood next in power, might, and dominion to the Lord Jehovah [Christ’s premortal name].” [11] But who were Michael’s valiant and mighty “angels” and his “brothers” referred to in these Bible verses who “overcame” Satan “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” and by their selflessly “lov[ing] not their lives unto the death” (Revelation 12:11)? And if Michael had brothers, why not sisters who surely were as valiant and effective in such a war?

If we take literally what we are taught in the endowment, could we not conclude that we, each of us, were among those valiant premortal spirits fighting alongside Michael to sustain our Heavenly Parents’ plan for our eternal progression (and possibly even assisting he and Jehovah in the creative endeavors that grew out of that Grand Council)?[12] Indeed, we need look no further for an understanding of our premortal stature than President Nelson’s 2019 General Conference Priesthood session statement that “you were chosen by our Father to come to earth at this crucial time because of your premortal spiritual valor. You are among the finest, most valiant men who have ever come to the earth” (which, it goes without saying, applies even more so to the faithful women of the Church).[13] Not only did we each exercise "exceeding faith and good works” (Alma13:3), as Alma describes, but as spirits we developed a myriad of talents, skills, personality strengths, all of which we brought with us to this earthly sphere and which we were each foreordained by God to employ in His service on behalf of our fellow beings.[14] Knowing and believing (and being frequently in the temple where we are reminded) that we were as “angels,” “called” or foreordained in the pre-existence to the most extraordinary of missions, just as we are called and set apart (and even anointed) in this life to do and become, makes it much harder to sell our eternal birthrights, as it were, for a “mess of pottage” (Genesis 25:30-34 & headnote).

Divine purpose—“Why am I here?” Simply stated, the temple teaches us, like no course of secular learning or personal scripture study can, that we are here on earth to continue the process of spiritual growth that we began since (and even before)[15] we were spiritually begotten by our Heavenly Parents, however many eons of time that may have encompassed. As Jesus Christ succinctly taught, “be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), or as He amended after his own perfection or “completion” after His resurrection, “even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect” (3 Nephi 12:48).Both Presidents Nelson and Oaks have framed this purpose, or earthly task, in terms of gaining the ability (or choosing to live by) celestial versus terrestrial or telestial laws.[16] Celestial laws include both the “first principles” or commandments (including faith in Jesus Christ and daily repentance) and the “higher laws” we are taught about and covenant to keep in the temple.

Divine help—“How can I live up to God’s high expectations for me?” But how is it possible that we can become “perfect” or ever live a celestial law perfectly? Certainly not on our own strength or will (that “self-help” thing), but, as our Heavenly Parents intended, only through Jesus Christ. As the temple and the fullness of the gospel teach us: our Heavenly Parents begot, raised, mentored, called and prepared a Savior, even Jehovah, their First Born, who even before His divine birth in Bethlehem presided next to His Father as a member of the First Presidency of Heaven. Even at the primeval time of that Grand Council, it was our faith in the premortal Christ and the “blood of the Lamb” that He would spill in our behalf that empowered us, with mighty Michael, to overcame the sophistries of Lucifer and one-third of the heavenly hosts who followed him and keep “our first estate” (Jude 1:6; Abraham 3:26-28). For me, one of the greatest spiritual treasures of the temple is consistently receiving there Christ’s spiritual assurance—“I am able to make you holy” (D&C 60:7).

Divine destiny. I never have liked the quote, apparently attributed to Mae West, “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it,” as applied to the gospel. I prefer the thousands of scriptural assurances and promises by God that “those that keep the commandments of God . . . are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness” (Mosiah 2:41). As King Benjamin reminds us, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the temple where we receive its crowning ordinances and return to as “often as our circumstances allow” to receive strength and power to keep our covenants with God, is not just about the promises we receive there about the next life, which, for me at least, are beyond my present comprehension, but about this all-determinative life. It has always impressed me that one of the first commandments God gives Adam and Eve (us) is to “be happy” (see John 13:17; 1 Nephi 8:10; Mormon 9:14). God’s Plan is, indeed, a Plan of Happiness (Alma 42:8, 16).

Temples at the crossroads of life. I received a personal witness of temples as a place of personal revelation to guide us at the crossroads of our lives early in our marriage. We were living with Dorothy’s mother at the time, who had terminal cancer. Still in my sophomore year at BYU, I had feelings that I should apply to transfer to a university in the East to complete my undergraduate studies, but was hesitant to commit ourselves to any big changes while we were caring for her mother. So we went to the Provo Temple fasting with a prayer in our hearts about whether we should move forward. The Provo Temple had a large chapel you go to after dressing in white to await the beginning of the session. It was while waiting in the middle of a bench in that large chapel completely full of patrons that I received a clear impression that we would be called to be the witnesses for the upcoming endowment session. By this unmistakable “sign” I would be reassured that God had heard our prayers, that all would be well with Grandma Susie and that we could proceed with our plans without fear or hesitation. Immediately after this clear impression, the session officiator pointed to us as he walked down the chapel aisle, asking if we would serve as the witness couple. At that moment, the Spirit confirmed powerfully to my heart that our prayers had been heard and that all would be well. The powerful feeling continued with me throughout the session. I thus felt peace moving forward with an application (and was later accepted and gained immeasurably from skills acquired during my course of study). Shortly before our move, Dorothy’s mother passed away, joining her husband and one son who had preceded her in death.

In terms of framing the central role of “desire” (what we really want as manifested by our consistent choices), and how our goals and plans dovetail therewith (whether prayerfully and deliberately articulated through an iterative—daily, weekly, monthly, annually or whatnot—process or only subconsciously selected), nothing in my view equals Alma’s sober declaration, “I know that [God] granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable, according to their wills” (Alma 29:4). My grandparents Wilford and Clella Fluckiger taught me many important lessons about the importance of “educating” and being intentional about our desires, and, ultimately in the fruits of their lives, about what it looks like to receive the ultimate promises of the temple. Even before they married, they each (unknown to the other) desired to have a large family. When offered a management-track position that would have been very lucrative and provided a steady income, but would have involved a lot of travel, Grandpa declined. Years later, after they had already had eight children (Grandpa was then 34, Grandma about 32), they prayed and counseled together extensively whether they, contrary to criticism they were feeling about their already large family, should have more children. In response Grandpa received in a dream a sacred insight into how many spirits anxiously awaited their “turn” on earth (as promised by their Heavenly Parents, see D&C 132:63) and was reassured that they could move forward according to their mutual (and I would say for them, inspired) desires. (In a count made about 25 years after my grandmother’s passing, they already had, by then, an “Abraham-like” posterity, with 80 grandchildren, 320 great grandchildren and 309 great-great grandchildren.)

My new year’s wish for me and for each of my intrepid readers is that this year,  and every precious year thereafter given us by an All-Knowing God, our goals, plans and celestially-educated desires may bring each of us all that God has promised those who love Him, even “peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come” (D&C 59:23).

[1] Oliver Burkeman, “‘New Year, New You’ Doesn’t Work. Here’s How You Can Actually Improve Your Life”, Wall Street Journal, December 27, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/new-year-new-you-doesnt-work-heres-how-you-can-actually-improve-your-life-2075af4b?page=1. For a slightly different perspective, see Gerald Baker, “I Can’t Keep a Resolution, but Maybe Our Leaders Can,” Wall Street Journal, January 6, 2025, https://www.wsj.com/opinion/i-cant-keep-a-resolution-but-maybe-our-leaders-can-trump-biden-harris-pope-francis-cd5b5a87?mod=Searchresults_pos4&page=1 (“I’m a firm believer in New Year’s resolutions.”) Like Gerald Baker, I am also a big believer in New Year’s resolutions, ever since reading in my teens Maxwell Maltz’s Psycho-Cybernetics, in which he used the term "teleological" to describe the goal-striving mechanism of the human mind [possibly reflective of how God “engineered” our minds?]: “Your automatic creative mechanism [mind] is teleological. That is, it operates in terms of goals and end results. Once you give it a definite goal to achieve [what you really "want" or desire] you can depend upon its automatic guidance system to take you to that goal much better than ‘you’ ever could by conscious thought. ‘You’ supply the goal by thinking in terms of end results. Your [subconscious mind] then supplies the ‘means whereby’ [you achieve the goal].” Maxwell Maltz, Psycho-Cybernetics (New York, NY: Pocket Books 1960), 223, https://dingwallasc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/pscyho-cybernetics-book-maxwell-maltz.pdf. His observation sounds to me a lot like President Nelson’s counsel “begin with the end in mind.” “Think Celestial!” Liahona, November 2023. [2] “People who are active in religious congregations tend to be happier and more civically engaged than either religiously unaffiliated adults or inactive members of religious groups, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of survey data from the United States and more than two dozen other countries.” See generally Pew Research Center, “Religion’s Relationship to Happiness, Civic Engagement and Health Around the World,” January 31, 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/01/31/religions-relationship-to-happiness-civic-engagement-and-health-around-the-world/#:~:text=People%20who%20are%20active%20in%20religious%20congregations,and%20more%20than%20two%20dozen%20other%20countries. For a description of the key role faith in God (or in a “higher power”) plays in one of life’s most challenging goals, overcoming an addiction or stress or emotionally-triggered compulsive behavior, see, for example, Chris Elkins, “What Is a Higher Power?” DrugRebab, com, https://www.drugrehab.com/recovery/faith-and-religion/what-is-a-higher-power/#:~:text=A%20higher%20power%20helps%20many,the%20important%20things%20in%20life. The LDS Church’s addiction recovery program is similarly based. See especially “Step 2: Come to believe the power of God can restore us to complete spiritual health,” at https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/addiction-recovery-program-2023/04-step-2?lang=eng#p24. [3] Google AI summary “life’s big questions”. [4] Stephen L. Fluckiger, Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple (Springville, Utah: CFI, an Imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc. 2024), 123 & n.18. [5] Drawing 162-66 (“‘Man’ as it appears in Genesis 1:27 [“God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”] and Genesis 5:1 refers to human-kind, male and female, Adam and Eve collectively. And God called “their” name “Adam.” As President Kimball explained, “Man here is always in the plural. It was plural from the beginning,” referring “not [to] a separate man, but a complete man, which is husband and wife.”) and 172 n. 18 (“when Genesis 1:27 states that ‘God created man in his own image . . . male and female created he them,’ ‘we might deduce that the Divine Council included both male and female deity.’ In fact, [Melinda Brown] adds, if Elohim is plural, as Joseph Smith taught (“the word Eloiheam ought to be in the plural all the way through [the scriptures]”), “perhaps the name Elohim represents our Heavenly Parents” (Eve and Adam, 57–58)). [6] See Drawing, chapter 18, “The Spiritual Treasure of Eternal Families,” including Bruce R. McConkie’s statement, quoted at p. 244 & n.12  that “if righteous men have power through the gospel and its crowning ordinance of celestial marriage to become kings and priests to rule in exaltation forever, it follows that the women by their side (without whom they cannot attain exaltation) will be queens and priestesses. (Rev. 1:6; 5:10.) Exaltation grows out of the eternal union of a man and his wife. Of those whose marriage endures in eternity, the Lord says, ‘Then shall they be gods’ (Doctrine and Covenants 132:20); that is, each of them, the man and the woman, will be a god. As such they will rule over their dominions forever.” [7] Russell M. Nelson, “Come, Follow Me”, Liahona, May 2019, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2019/05/46nelson?lang=eng. [8]Drawing, 154. [9] It goes without saying that there would be no Heavenly Father without a Heavenly Mother. See note 6 above and Drawing, chapter 18, “The Spiritual Treasure of Eternal Families;”Gospel Topics Essays, “Mother in Heaven,” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/mother-in-heaven?lang=eng#p1. [10] Russell M. Nelson, “Choices for Eternity,” May 15, 2022, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/broadcasts/worldwide-devotional-for-young-adults/2022/05/12nelson?lang=eng#title1. [11] Drawing, 163, quoting Bruce R. McConkie, “Eve and the Fall,” in Woman (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1979), 57–68 (“Eve, a female spirit, whose premortal name has not been revealed, was of like stature [to Adam in], capacity, and intelligence.”). [12] Drawing, 172 n. 18 (quoting Elder McConkie: ““This we know: Christ, under the Father, is the Creator; Michael, his companion and associate, presided over much of the creative work; and with them, as Abraham saw, were many of the noble and great ones. Can we do other than conclude that Mary and Eve and Sarah and myriads of our faithful sisters were numbered among them? Certainly these sisters labored as diligently then, and fought as valiantly in the war in heaven, as did the brethren, even as they in like manner stand firm today, in mortality, in the cause of truth and righteousness”) [13] Russell M. Nelson, “We Can Do Better and Be Better,” Liahona May 2019. See also D&C 138:56; Abraham 3:22-23. [14] Drawing, 157 and note 11 (“When we pass from preexistence to mortality, we bring with us the traits and talents there developed. True, we forget what went before because we are here being tested, but the capacities and abilities that then were ours are yet resident within us. Mozart is still a musician; Einstein retains his mathematical abilities; Michelangelo his artistic talent; Abraham, Moses, and the prophets their spiritual talents and abilities. . . . And all men with their infinitely varied talents and personalities pick up the course of progression where they left it off when they left the heavenly realms” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah, 4 vols. [1979–81], 1:23, 25)). [15] Drawing, 156 (“our individual spiritual development . . . began ever since, and even before, we were spiritually begotten by Heavenly Parents”); see D&C 93:29-31. [16] Russell M. Nelson, “Think Celestial!” Liahona, November 2023 (“if we unwisely choose to live telestial laws now, we are choosing to be resurrected with a telestial body”); Dallin H. Oaks, “Kingdoms of Glory,” Liahona, November 2023 (“‘all kingdoms have a law given’ and . . . the kingdom of glory we receive in the Final Judgment is determined by the laws we choose to follow in our mortal journey”). Image iStock credit: marekuliasz #divine identity #new year's resolutions #Family Proclamation #goals and plans #temples and divine identity #Adam and Eve #eternal marriage