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As I sat pondering about him and looking at where and when he was born, the thought came to me that he was born around the same time as my great, great grandfather, Calvin Gordon Stone, who was also born in North Carolina. The spirit whispered to me that they knew each other, and that Calvin Gordon Stone had a part of Matthew receiving the gospel and accepting it.
Needles to say, I was moved by the feelings I felt.
I took the following quote from the book "A Formula for Temple Worship," by S. Michael Wilcox. It gives some good insight into how to ponder while in the temple.
Pondering while in the temple can bring great insight into our lives, help us receive answers to questions, be close to those we are doing the work for and learn the things of eternity.
Pondering spiritual things is always an invitation to receive revelation. The scriptures give numerous examples of prophets who have reflected, pondered, meditated, or studied and received glorious spiritual experiences as the result. (See 1 Nephi 11, D&C 76, or D&C 138 as examples.) Pondering requires a deep concentration of thought and focus.
To effectively ponder the temple ordinances, we must be familiar with them. If we want to ponder the scriptures, we can read and reread them, focusing on each word or phrase and how it relates to other truths found elsewhere in the text. We can do this with the temple ordinances only if they are written in our minds and in our hearts, for we cannot study them on a printed page. This occurs the more frequently we participate in them. It is next to impossible to ponder something we are not familiar with.
At times, while listening to the endowment, we may want to pause and reflect about some insight we are discovering. We wish we could stop the session from continuing so we could reflect a little deeper. Sometimes we wish we could write ourselves a note about an insight we are receiving so we could reflect on it more when the ceremony is over. We are afraid we will forget our insight by the time the session is completed. Of course, we can neither write ourselves notes nor stop the session. We must learn to hold the thoughts in our minds and then, in quiet moments in and out of the temple, ponder them and let the Spirit teach us. The more we attend the temple, the more permanently the phrases and words of the endowment rest securely in our minds, where they are available for future pondering.
Pondering spiritual things is always an invitation to receive revelation. The scriptures give numerous examples of prophets who have reflected, pondered, meditated, or studied and received glorious spiritual experiences as the result. (See 1 Nephi 11, D&C 76, or D&C 138 as examples.) Pondering requires a deep concentration of thought and focus.
To effectively ponder the temple ordinances, we must be familiar with them. If we want to ponder the scriptures, we can read and reread them, focusing on each word or phrase and how it relates to other truths found elsewhere in the text. We can do this with the temple ordinances only if they are written in our minds and in our hearts, for we cannot study them on a printed page. This occurs the more frequently we participate in them. It is next to impossible to ponder something we are not familiar with.
At times, while listening to the endowment, we may want to pause and reflect about some insight we are discovering. We wish we could stop the session from continuing so we could reflect a little deeper. Sometimes we wish we could write ourselves a note about an insight we are receiving so we could reflect on it more when the ceremony is over. We are afraid we will forget our insight by the time the session is completed. Of course, we can neither write ourselves notes nor stop the session. We must learn to hold the thoughts in our minds and then, in quiet moments in and out of the temple, ponder them and let the Spirit teach us. The more we attend the temple, the more permanently the phrases and words of the endowment rest securely in our minds, where they are available for future pondering.
As always, I love you!
Love, Dad
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