Eternal Marriage

Eternal marriage is a rather large topic to address, but in this week's blog post my hope is to focus on the impact it can have on a husband and wife's posterity.

For starters, what is an "eternal marriage"? Based upon my study and experience, I have come to know that eternal marriage is a covenant between a husband, wife, and God. An eternal marriage is performed by the sealing power of the priesthood in the temple of the Lord. When a husband and wife are sealed in the temple, they have the opportunity to not only be bound together for eternity, but to have an eternal family bound to them as well.

(link to the original picture can be found here.)

The eternal family is so important that the adversary does everything that he can to tear the family apart. No unit is more attacked than the family, and it's evidence is all around us. Elder Bruce C. Hafen once stated in his address Covenant Marriage that "the adversary has long cultivated [an] overemphasis on personal autonomy, and now he feverishly exploits it." I feel that there is a heavy emphasis on personal autonomy in today’s society, but in selfish ways. So many have become so self absorbed, that a commonly asked question seems to be “what’s in it for me?” which is far from walking in the ways of Christ. Many seem to be far more focused on doing what they want to do, rather than doing what is truly right. This way of thinking is dangerous, and has become a commonly used weapon against the family unit.

President Ezra Taft Benson once declared that "salvation is a family affair," so of course the adversary does not want the family to succeed. Satan "seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself" (2 Nephi 2:27).

So what can we do to help our posterity? We can lead by example. We can obey the Lord and His commandments. We can do the things we want our children to do. If we want our children to get sealed for time and eternity in the temple, the likelihood of that increases when we make and keep those same sacred covenants.

President Ezra Taft Benson once said: “When our children obey the Lord and go to the temple to receive their blessings and enter into the marriage covenant, they enter into the same order of the priesthood that God instituted in the very beginning with father Adam.” Marriage has been an institution created and ordained of God since the beginning of time, and we have the blessing to partake in it, and also have a responsibility to pass it's importance on to our children.

So, in what ways can I prepare for a covenant marriage now? Personally, I have set a goal to do the following:

• I am going to continue attending the temple regularly (be consistent).
• I will pray daily, and study the scriptures daily; learn more about, and gain a deeper testimony of the doctrine of covenant marriage.
• I will actively seek opportunities to serve others.
• I will strive to magnify my church calling, and make it so that husbands and wives have time for each other and their families at home.
• I will work to not give up easily on relationships now (whether it be with family, friendships, and so on) so that I may be more prepared to not give up in my marriage (strive to give 100%).

I invite everyone who reads this blog post to ask themselves the same question: In what ways can you prepare for a covenant marriage? And if you are already married: In what ways can you strengthen your covenant marriage?

In conclusion, I wanted to share one of my favorite Mormon Messages regarding a selfless, covenant marriage: