Parallels in Purifications

As I took a shower this morning in preparation to go to the temple with the youth of my ward, I thought of the symbolism of the shower. As I cleaned myself physically to get myself ready to enter the temple, I pondered whether I was spiritually clean and ready to enter the temple. I thought over my recent actions or inactions as I prepared. As I washed myself from head to toe, I thought how that paralleled baptism and repentance. While I was not fully immersed in a pool of water, which occurs at baptism, the water of the shower washed away dirt and other uncleanness. The heat of the water reminded me of the purifying burning of the Holy Ghost. The scrubbing with soap is like the spiritual scrubbing that comes in the process of repentance - it requires effort; without the cleansing of soap, the purification process is incomplete. Without repentance and effort on our part, even the cleansing of baptism is insufficient, for repentance is a condition of baptism.