My favorite room in the temple may be the locker room.
I love walking into the temple and heading into a room and seeing other women who, that day and that hour, have chosen to leave the world behind for a time and serve in the House of the Lord.
But there is something more to it than that.
The Concept of “Sistering”
Recently my husband and I had our leaking shower ripped out and discovered that the underlying woodwork was rotten and crumbling. Besides being horrified at what had been lurking behind our walls, I wondered how our contractor was going to fix the problem. It didn’t look possible to replace all the decaying boards without the wall itself coming down.
After several days, I noticed some of the damaged boards had been replaced, but not all of them. I asked the contractor about it and he explained to me the concept of “sistering”: a process of reinforcing damaged boards by attaching them to new, strong boards. He showed me where they had bound fresh, clean lumber to the weak existing wood, which will strengthen those boards and allow them to function beyond their current capacity.
Being in the temple locker room feels, to me, like sistering.
Sometimes I enter feeling weak, and sometimes I go in feeling strong. Each woman I encounter is at a different point in her life, battling different challenges and questions. But in the temple locker room, we are bonded together, strengthening each other as we gather our sisters on both sides of the veil.
In the locker room, I have been lifted by others as I bawled my eyes out over a difficult challenge. I’ve been helped by a stranger when the zipper in my white dress suddenly died an ignominious death. I’ve “sistered” someone as they came back to the temple for the first time in years.
What Changes in the Locker Room
We all have days when we feel like the work we do isn’t important or that our contribution isn’t necessary or that no one needs us. But in the locker room, all of that changes. We leave the world behind, and we work for God, together.
“Oh, how we need each other,”1 Sister Marjorie P. Hinckley once said.
When I walk into the temple locker room, I feel like part of a great army of women.
Not one of us is the same, but we are sisters.
Not one of us is alone because we are on the Lord’s errand, together.
And not one of us needs to fear because there are angels among us.
In the temple locker room.
Other articles recommended for you:
▶ The initiatory ordinance is beautifully relevant to daily life—here’s how
▶ The simple thing my mom did that showed me the power of temple garments
▶ How my feelings about the temple garment have evolved over time
1. Glimpses into the Life and Heart of Marjorie Pay Hinckley, ed. Virginia H. Pearce (Deseret Book, 1999), 254–55.
