What do our baptismal covenants that we make and then renew during sacrament meeting every Sunday mean? In 2021 I learned more about the covenants I made at baptism when I was asked to lead a discussion on the topic in Relief Society. This is that message:
And they said unto me: What meaneth the arod of iron which our father saw, that led to the tree? And I said unto them that it was the aword of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would bhold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the ctemptations and the fiery ddarts of the eadversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. Wherefore, I, Nephi, did exhort them to give aheed unto the word of the Lord; yea, I did exhort them with all the energies of my soul, and with all the bfaculty which I possessed, that they would give heed to the word of God and remember to keep his commandments always in all things. -1 Nephi 15:23-25
The Iron rod is the “word of God”.
I think that the most common and literal meaning to the word of God is the scriptures, but ultimately we could apply it to anywhere God is speaking to us: through the spirit, through the prophet, through others, and through our covenants. When making and keeping covenants with God we are communicating and working with Him by agreeing to the specific purposes of His plan. This is the rod.
As God’s children we are all a part of His plan, we all chose it when coming to Earth, and we all have a purpose that requires our individual perspective and talents as I mentioned in the ocean and land story I ended my talk in sacrament meeting. This is the path, underneath and beside the rod. We are each walking our own path to help us learn, grow, and work with God even if we are unaware of Him, believe in Him, or are wicked. But is walking only on the path without the rod considered wickedness?
In D. Todd Christofferson’s talk entitled “Why the Covenant Path,” he says “Some might say, “I can make good choices with or without baptism; I don’t need covenants to be an honorable and successful person.” Indeed, there are many who, while not on the covenant path themselves, act in a way that mirrors the choices and contributions of those who are on the path. You might say they reap the blessings of walking a “covenant-consistent” path.
In Isaiah there is written a continuing story with three main “characters”. The first is the Babylonian king that didn’t care about life and was delighted in the war. He sought to conquer for his own gain and thought that as a king he was above it all and allowed to take what he wanted. He didn’t need a God because he believed he had it all. The second character, put together as one group, is the Israelites who forgot their God and began to stray from their covenants. To remind them and for other purposes God allowed the greedy heart of the Babylonian King to conquer the Israelites who were put into bondage, a blessing in disguise because of the covenants they had made with God. The third character came years later. His name was Cyrus. Cyrus didn’t know God apart from any other god that was mentioned but he had a righteous heart and God paved the way for him to conquer Babylon with very little to no fight as well as other cities. He gave credit to both God and another god. The Israelites declared that God wouldn’t have sent a Persian man to save them because he didn’t even believe in God and yet God did! He knew what was right for His people because of who was listening to Him and letting Him work through them. The interesting and eye opening aspect of this story is that God had a purpose for all in the story from those who forgot their covenants with Him, to a man who didn’t know God but followed what was right, and all the way to another man who was the opposite of any qualities considered to be righteous in anyway. If we are all walking this path where we already have purpose, what, then, is the difference of the covenant path?
D. Todd Christofferson says that “ the difference is uniquely and eternally significant. It includes the nature of our obedience, the character of God’s commitment to us, the divine help we receive, the blessings tied to gathering as a covenant people, and most importantly, our eternal inheritance.
The covenant path isn’t just a path. It’s not the general path we are all uniquely walking consisting of what we need for our Earthly life and growth. The rod is next to each of our paths should we agree to reach out and grasp hold of it. It is an opportunity for all to have because we have chosen His plan to come to Earth and we are walking that earthly and individualized path. The rod that can make our path a covenant one, is as D. Todd Christofferson has said, our “eternal inheritance”. Grasping that rod has a specifically designed purpose that goes beyond just what our earthy path has for us. We use this ordained rod to give our unique path a steadiness we could not find, should we choose to walk the path alone.
Pres. Nelson was quoted in D. Todd Christofferson’s talk saying, “The ordinances of the temple and the covenants you make there are key to strengthening your life, your marriage and family, and your ability to resist the attacks of the adversary. Your worship in the temple and your service there for your ancestors will bless you with increased personal revelation and peace and will fortify your commitment to stay on the covenant path.”
Just knowing what the rod, or our covenants, universally blesses us with cannot hold us steady all by itself either. If we were to know the rod is there, next to our path, with all it’s many blessings but not take hold of it and then add it to our personal path it would do us just as much good as if we tried to walk the path alone. In order to walk the covenant path we have to understand how the covenants and accompanying blessings work in our lives. We have to not only have that desire to make covenants but we have to also keep them by constantly reflecting and noticing how they personalize into our lives. This is the obedience mentioned by D. Todd Chrsitofferson.
Bound to God - John 16:33
Once we have added the rod, the covenants, to our own path and made it a one of specific purpose with God we are then “Bound to Him” meaning that even though we now have the rod with us we will still let go at times if frightened, confused or curious; We will still have questions; We will still make mistakes; we will forget what we have covenanted specifically; and we will still be growing our testimonies. This is our life and our path that is meant to help us learn and grow on earth after all. However, because of the rod or our covenants we will have tied our will to His and will receive the divine help we need to remember those covenants again in an even deeper way.
Divine Help - Moroni 8:26, Mormon 7:10, and 2 Nephi 31:13
This divine help as D. Todd Chrsitofferson talks about in his talk comes through the companionship of the Holy Spirit which we are given during our first specifically purposed covenant: baptism.
Baptism is being “born of water” so when we are completely immersed in the water and blessed by one commissioned of Jesus Christ we become his. We covenant to follow in His ways by serving one another and serving God. We promise to try our best to listen to His spirit and follow each prompting he gives us regarding our own personal path.
We also remember this covenant on Sunday as we partake of the bread to remember that he atoned for our sins that we covenanted to try our best to do no more at baptism and for His name that we take upon us as we drink of his water because he is the “living water”.
Gather with the Covenant People
“I hear people say, ‘I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian,” and they are absolutely right. Salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone. But you don’t have to go home to be married, but stay away long enough and your relationship will be affected,” -Tony Evans.
I liked this quote because it says it so simply and perfectly. We’ve also been learning this more since our gospel study has been reformed into being primarily at home and church supported. When we go home to search, ponder, and pray about the covenants and lessons we’re needing to learn more in depth it makes us receive more of the spirit to then share what another may need to hear. When we come together either in person or as we adjusted to with last year's physical restrictions we are living our covenants by being vessels for the Lord and to do his work. “We help ourselves when we help each other,” as was said by Garrit W. Gong in his talk “Room at the Inn”.
We gather at home (which we will come back to), at church, and at the temple.
D. Todd Christofferson quotes the prophet Joseph Smith saying, “What was the object of gathering the … people of God in any age of the world? … The main object was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom, and teach the people the way of salvation; for there are certain ordinances and principles that, when they are taught and practiced, must be done in a place or house built for that purpose.”
Many other covenants we make are in the temple which builds upon the covenants made in baptism. Just like the baptismal covenants that come into two parts (immersion into the water and the gift of the holy ghost) the endowment covenants also comes in two parts, the initiatory (which literally means to constitute a beginning) and the rest of the endowment where you promise to keep the law of obedience, the law of sacrifice, the law of the gospel, the law of chastity, and the law of concentration. The initiatory is a specific blessing of heritage and potential while the endowment is a group session symbolizing the personal path we each take in life but the covenant path we all take together and work towards together. I believe the endowment covenants mirror the baptismal covenants as you start by baptism which joins you to a group of other individuals who are trying to take Christs name and follow his example, then you receive the Holy Ghost which confirms and personalizes your covenants with personal revelation from God, then the initiatory expands on your specific purposes within those covenants, and finally in your endowments you are to go forward together and helping as many souls as you can along.
Inherit the Covenant Promises
We’ve already discussed the aforementioned blessings and promises we inherit should we try and keep the covenants a part of our lifelong path but there are more covenant appendages and blessings I feel are outlined in the Family A Proclamation to the World.
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In “The Family: A proclamation to the world”, it says, “In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.”
As we’ve talked about before this was our first step into the life of the covenant maker. Once on Earth we have the opportunity to turn our own path we’re walking on through life into a covenant filled path by continuing to agree to God’s plan. As listed in the proclamation each covenant is made personalized because of agreements to God as we fulfill them.
Joy D. Jones said in her talk “Essential Conversations” this past April, “He trusts us to value, respect, and protect them as children of God. That means we never harm them physically, verbally, or emotionally in any way, even when tensions and pressures run high. Instead we value children, and we do all we can to combat the evils of abuse. Their care is primary to us—as it is to Him.”
To me this is in reference to the parenthood, family, and man and woman is ordained of God. God designed our lives to be integrated with one another through at least one family unit. This was intended with a specific purpose or purposes in mind. Because this is a promise to care for and raise children we are also accountable to him because of it. This is an appendage to our premortal, baptismal, and temple covenants. We can then apply this covenant to our own lives with what God has destined for us to do on our own individual paths. All have children, family, and parenthood as apart of their individual lives in one way or another but it becomes a part of our covenants as we strive to accomplish it in the manner that God has laid out before us.
Joy D. Jones said, “It is our privilege and responsibility to help children “get far enough in” to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we cannot begin too soon.”... “We cannot wait for conversion to simply happen to our children. Accidental conversion is not a principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Becoming like our Savior will not happen randomly. Being intentional in loving, teaching, and testifying can help children begin at a young age to feel the influence of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is essential to our children’s testimony of and conversion to Jesus Christ; we desire them to “always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them.
“Accidental conversion is not a principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” I think this can be applied to all. I personally feel as though I am continually pursuing a conversion. It is through questioning, seeking answers, testing out what I have learned, and then sharing what I have gained a testimony on.
Joy D Jones says, “Simple, caring conversations can lead children to know not only what they believe, but most importantly, why they believe it. Caring conversations, happening naturally and consistently, can lead to better understanding and answers.”
If we can foster the belief in the “why” and not just the “what” as we are doing for one another and in our own lives it’ll give the children of today more of a foundational instinct to constantly be turning to God and the stamina to not give up a belief just because it is challenged but to fight for and grow in their belief throughout their lives.
Joy D Jones asks a three questions after she shares the story of a young man who was initially irritated with his drill instructor but later was grateful for the training he received which had unknowingly prepared him for the battlefield:
“Wouldn’t we rather have them “sweat” in the safe learning environment of the home than bleed on the battlefields of life?”... “When we strengthen a child, we strengthen the family.”
Ultimately we are each walking our own unique path throughout life that can be enhanced through and be steadied through our covenants with God to be more like Christ, follow the guidance of the spirit, apply each gospel principle and covenant to our lives, and teach one another. As we do so we will receive all the promises available to us and we shall, … “mount up with wings as deagles; [we] shall erun, and not be weary; and [we] shall walk, and not faint.” -Isaiah 40:31.
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