Keep, Keeps, and Keepers

Have you ever had the experience of reading something and suddenly having a word, an ordinary word that you have read a thousand times, jump out at you? I recently had that happen with the word “keep.”

What does it mean to “keep” something? To keep a secret, keep a promise, keep the commandments, keep our covenants. To hold? To do? To obey?  (For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, obeying the commandments and making and keeping sacred covenants are key points of doctrine and bring promised blessings of peace, joy and spiritual protection. You can learn more about commandments here and more about covenants here. 

Thinking about it, I found myself remembering the time that my family spent in Europe when I was a child and later as a teenager.  During those trips we toured a lot of very old castles and fortresses. (When I was little, I was always excited when told we were going to visit a castle because I thought they were far more interesting than the museums that my parents tried to help us appreciate.)

Many of the older fortresses we visited were mostly crumbling walls, but often the most intact part of the ruin was a tower, usually in the very center and sometimes on elevated ground, called the keep. The reason that keeps tended to outlast the rest of the castle was that when the castle was built, the keep was purposely reinforced, constructed with the strongest materials to withstand the fiercest attacks. It was used as a refuge of last resort if the rest of the castle fell to an adversary. The owner of the castle kept his prized possessions there, sent his family there if the castle came under attack, and posted his most trusted guards to watch over it. Those guards were known as the “keepers.”

As I thought about those keeps, and the men chosen to be keepers, it gave me new understanding into the meaning of the verb keep. We, like the noblemen who lived all those centuries ago, have things that need to be cherished, protected, valued, guarded. Our loving Heavenly Father has given us commandments and sacred covenants—not just simply to obey, but to keep—to cherish, protect, value, treasure, guard. We truly keep them as we remember them, strive to understand them, honor them, live them, are grateful for them, and renew them with faith and joy and integrity of heart.

President Thomas S. Monson has taught: “Sacred covenants are to be revered by us, and faithfulness to them is a requirement for happiness.” I know that this is true, and I know that as we truly keep—revere--our covenants, our homes become keeps, places of refuge and safety from the attacks of the adversary.

Finally, this insight into the meaning of the word keeper can give us greater appreciation for the role of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Listen to the words of the Book of Mormon prophet, Jacob, in 2 Nephi 9:41-42:

O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man in narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel, and he employeth no servant there, and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name. And whoso knocketh, to him will he open.

I love this talk by Barbara Thompson about the joy and power that come as we truly keep our covenants.

Marilyn
Who still loves visiting castles...