Continuing from Elder Boyd K. Packer and a previous post:
In the Church that Jesus Christ established, all things are done in His name. Prayers are said, children blessed, testimonies borne, sermons preached, ordinances performed, sacrament administered, the infirm anointed, graves dedicated.
What a mockery it becomes when we use that sacred name profanely. If you need some feeling for the seriousness of the offense, next time you hear such an expression or are tempted to use one yourself, substitute the name of your mother, or your father or your child or your own name. Perhaps then insulting and degrading implications will be borne into you to have a name you revere so used. Perhaps then you will understand the third commandment.
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).
Reverence and Worship in His Name
However common irreverence and profanity become, they are nonetheless wrong. We teach our children so. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we revere His name. We worship in his name; we love Him.
He said: “Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. Therefore ye must pray always in my name; and what soever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.
“Pray in your families, unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed” (3 Nephi 18:18-21; italics added).
The authority to use His name has been restored. The Disease of Profanity, now in epidemic proportions, is spreading across the land, and so, in His name, we pray that a purity of heart may descend upon us, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. ~Elder Boyd K. Packer or the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (deceased) “In Wisdom & Order”
For the first post of this series, click The Disease of Profanity. (If you see something below, ignore it. This subject is complete, kdm)
