Running By Heaven

I take a 3 mile run/jog (for me it is a run, but for a true athlete, it is probably just a jog) almost every morning, Monday thru Saturday. It was a torture during the Summer, when early morning temps were in the mid 90's, but now it is so pleasant. I can think, I can plan, and I even take the chance to talk to my Heavenly Father. (Besides, when I talk, it keeps the nuts away from me, for I appear to be even nuttier!) Lately, I have turned on Pinnacle Peak Road, and run by the site that will be the Phoenix Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I prayed that the neighbors would soften toward the building of the temple, and that the zoning hearing would turn out favorably. While the neighbors are still concerned, the zoning hearing voted to approve the building. What a blessing to have a temple so very close...within a mile! Yesterday, as I ran by, my thoughts were taken to a talk I had heard the day before in Sacrament Meeting, when the speaker shared that, months ago, he had picked up Elder Russell M. Nelson at the airport, and drove him to the site. Elder Nelson, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, walked on that soil...the soil that I run by. I felt so warm when I ran by, touched by the Spirit that one of the Lord's Special Witnesses had walked there, had seen the site. Other apostles and prophets, in the years to come, will walk there. What a great blessing for us. In my wildest imaginations, I never ever would have believed a sacred temple would be in walking distance of my home! Blessings abound!