Marriage is a wonderful thing. I myself have only been married for just over
a year and a half, so some may say that is not long enough to really know if
marriage is good or not, I disagree. In
my marriage, it is not all perfect, we definitely experience trials. That is what always comes when two people
start a family together, but this past year and a half has been the happiest of
my life. Now with how happy marriage can
be, why should it be till death do us part?
We know marriage doesn’t have to be over once we die. We can be sealed to our spouse for time and
all eternity if we are worthy and willing to do so in a temple by someone with
the right authority from God. Doing so
not only allows us to be together forever but also makes us eligible to
receive eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God, if we remain worthy
and endure to the end. This eternal
perspective that we gain as we are sealed in the temple also helps couples to
stay together when the tough times come.
Outside of the church, marriage is seen as something more temporary
because it is till death do us part, but because of the seriousness and the
length of temple marriages, when a couple gets married, they are expecting to
be together for the long haul. They are
willing to give up a little more because of their perspective. Elder
Bruce C. Hafen said in his October 1996 talk titled Covenant Marriage,
“Contract companions each give 50 percent, covenant companions each give 100
percent.”
Becoming covenant companions can only happen inside a temple
during the sealing ordinance. The
sealing ordinance is extremely important to us as a church as well because
families are so important to God’s plan.
Because the sealing is what allows us to enter into the highest level in
the Celestial kingdom, it is the single most important thing we can do after we
have done everything else to prepare us to enter into the temple. Quite often people get bad ideas about the
temple because of the mysticism that surrounds temples. People are confused when they can’t go in to
see the wedding of their daughter or son.
This is because of the sacred acts that we perform in temples,
specifically temple sealings. President
Benson said “The temple is a sacred place, and the ordinances in the temple are
of a sacred character. Because of its sacredness we are sometimes reluctant to say
anything about the temple to our children and grandchildren.”[1]
During the sealing ordinance in the temple, we make sacred
covenants to God and our spouse. These
covenants or promises are what help us advance, and the act of making them
requires a great amount of faith because we do not know what exactly will be
required of us in order to keep those covenants after getting sealed. Elder Bruce C. Hafen also said in his talk, Covenant
Marriage “marrying and raising children can yield the most valuable
religious experiences of their lives.
Covenant marriage requires a total leap of faith: they must keep their
covenants without knowing what risks that may require of them” It is this faith that binds a husband and
wife together as they trust each other and rely on each other to help fulfill
the covenants they made in the temple.
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