Doctrine and Covenants section 29 verse 34 states:
“Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of men; neither Adam, your father, whom I created.”
It is not uncommon for someone to think that the commandment to have food storage, or get out of debt, or pay tithing, or be self-reliant are temporal laws since they deal with temporal things. The above scripture teaches otherwise. There are spiritual aspects to everything we do, every commandment we are given, everything that helps us be temporally self-reliant. When you consider that they are also spiritual in nature, they should rise in importance.
Pres. David O. McKay once taught*
“The development of our spiritual nature should concern us most. Spirituality is the highest acquisition of the soul, the divine in man; ‘the supreme, crowning gift that makes him king of all created things.’ It is the consciousness of victory over self and of communion with the infinite. It is spirituality alone which really gives one the best in life.
“It is something to supply clothing to the [poorly] clad, to furnish ample food to those whose table is thinly spread, to give activity to those who are fighting desperately the despair that comes from enforced idleness, but after all is said and done, the greatest blessings that will accrue … are spiritual. Outwardly, every act seems to be directed toward the physical; remaking of dresses and suits of clothes, canning fruits and vegetables, storing foodstuffs, choosing fertile fields for settlement—all seem strictly temporal, but permeating all these acts, inspiring and sanctifying them, is the element of spirituality.”
Allow yourself to think of the spiritual aspects of so-called “temporal” commandments and see if it changes your perspective of them.
*Conference Report, October 1936.
