When Lori Neff first started going to the temple, it was mostly a box she'd checked a couple times a year. The ordinances were familiar, the plan of salvation made sense, but the temple wasn't yet the lifeline it would later become. That all changed when her children started making big decisions she couldn't control. In this conversation, Lori opens up about how the temple became her refuge when life as a mom didn't go according to the script. She talks about the heartbreak of a son choosing not to serve a mission. Another son coming home early from Fiji and a daughter walking a painful, difficult path she never anticipated. And how in each case, her time in the temple didn't change her kids, it changed her.

You'll hear how weekly and then almost daily temple attendance helped her hand her children back to the Lord, stop trying to manage their agency, and start asking the Lord a different question. How can I help you parent these kids? She describes learning to see her daughter the way Heavenly Father sees her, recognizing the Savior's hand in her children's lives and discovering that the real gift of the temple is not just doctrine, it's personal revelation.

If you ever watched the temple with a breaking heart, worried that you failed as a parent, or wondered how to actually let the Lord carry the weight you're holding, this part of Lori's story is for you. Stay with us as Lori shares how the temple turned from a place she occasionally visited into the place where the Lord reshaped her motherhood, her faith, and her relationship with each of her children.