Following is the text of the prayer offered by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to dedicate the Bentonville Arkansas Temple on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023.
Our Beloved Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that we can pray to Thee in the name of Thy Beloved Son on this special day of dedication. Truly, our hearts are brimmed with joy, and we rejoice in our knowledge of Thee as our Eternal Father, of Thy Son as our Savior and Redeemer, and of the Holy Ghost as the witness of all truth.
We are assembled to thank Thee, to praise Thee, to worship Thee in the name of Thy Holy Son, and to dedicate this house of the Lord. We cannot express adequately even the smallest part of the gratitude we feel for the bounteous blessings Thou hast bestowed upon us.
We thank Thee for Thy great plan of happiness, established to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of Thy sons and daughters. We thank Thee for Thy Only Begotten and Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for Thy Son’s atoning and redeeming roles in Thy eternal plan and adore Him as our Savior. We express our love for Thee and for Him.
We thank Thee for the Restoration of the gospel of Thy Son through the Prophet Joseph Smith and for the blessing of living upon the earth in the latter-day dispensation of the fulness of times. We thank Thee for the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. We thank Thee for the return of priesthood authority and keys, for the establishment of Thy Son’s Church in the latter days, and for the sacred ordinances that enable each of us to have a covenant connection with Thee and Thy Son. We express our deepest gratitude for these supernal blessings.
We recognize we have been given much and that, therefore, much is required of us. We love Thy holy purposes and joyfully affirm our commitment to bear witness of Thee and Thy Son and to be anxiously engaged in the work of salvation and exaltation on both sides of the veil.
We thank Thee that the Restoration of Thy Son’s gospel is ongoing. We gratefully acknowledge that many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God on the earth have been revealed, are being revealed, and will yet be revealed.
We acknowledge and thank Thee today for the great and noble souls who over many decades have helped to establish Thy Son’s restored Church in northwest Arkansas, southwest Missouri and eastern Oklahoma. The faithfulness, devotion and consecrated service of these remarkable pioneers continue to bless and strengthen each of us and our families. We pledge this day to remember the righteous examples of those marvelous Saints who gave all their hearts, minds and strength to the Lord with wisdom and vision so clear.
We thank Thee for this beautiful building and for all who have labored to build it. We are especially grateful for the faithfulness of Thy Saints and for their tithes and offerings that have made this house of the Lord possible. Please bless them, Father, and open the windows of heaven and shower down upon them every needful gift.
Now, Beloved Heavenly Father, in the name of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, and acting in the authority of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood and with the authorization of the First Presidency of Thy Son’s restored Church, we dedicate and consecrate unto Thee and unto Thy Beloved Son the Bentonville Arkansas Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We humbly pray Thou wilt accept and visit this holy house. We ask Thee to permit Thy Spirit to be here at all times. Please strengthen and sanctify all who enter this sacred and set apart place.
We dedicate every space and feature of the structure from the footings to the top of the steeple. We dedicate the grounds, the ancillary facilities, the landscaping and the decorations for the accomplishment of Thy divine purposes.
We dedicate the baptismal font and the initiatory, endowment, sealing and celestial rooms for the blessing of individuals and families on both sides of the veil.
May a mantle of holiness rest upon and endure in and over this sacred edifice. We ask Thee to shield this temple from disruptive, desecrating and destructive influences and forces.
We pray that all who enter into this sacred space will do so worthily and thereby preserve the purity and the spirit of sublime reverence that should prevail in the house of the Lord. Please bless the members and temple leaders in all of their righteous efforts to accomplish Thy holy work.
We ask Thee to help each of us, by the power of the Holy Ghost, to more fully understand and to ever strengthen our individual covenant connection with Thee and Thy Beloved Son. May the power of godliness be made manifest in our individual lives through the ordinances of the holy priesthood.
And we ask Thee, in a most particular way, to bless the young people who come to this house to worship, to learn and to serve. Please help them to write in the fleshy tables of their hearts the truths of Thy Son’s restored gospel.
May the Spirit of this holy house emanate across the region and constrain, and even confound, those who make false accusations about or who seek in any way to hinder the holy work of Thy Son’s restored Church.
Holy Father, we love Thee. We thank Thee for Thy love and for Thy Beloved Son. Please hear our prayer on this day of dedication and accept our pleadings unto Thee we sincerely ask in the sacred name of Thy Son, even the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
