Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Marriage between a man and a woman is a vital part of God’s plan


Dear Sisters,


Thank you Lexy Perry for teaching a great lesson on Eternal Marriage.  Here is a brief summary of the lesson:

Gospel Principles lesson #38  Eternal Marriage. 


What are the blessings of an eternal marriage in this life and in eternity?

1. Our marriage can last forever: Death can part us from one another only temporarily. Nothing can part us forever except our own disobedience. This knowledge helps us work harder to have a happy, successful marriage.

How can an eternal perspective influence the way we feel about marriage and families?


2. Family Relations can continue throughout eternity: This knowledge helps us be careful in teaching and training our children. It also helps us show them greater patience and love. As a result, we should have a happier home.
3. An Outpouring of the Spirit on our marriage as we remain worthy: As long as we were married in a temple by the proper authority.
4. We can live in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom of God.
5. We can be exalted as God is and receive a fullness of joy. 

What can we do to help youth prepare for eternal marriage?

President Spencer W. Kimball taught: “Marriage is perhaps the most vital of all the decisions and has the most far-reaching effects, for it has to do not only with immediate happiness, but also with eternal joys. It affects not only the two people involved, but also their families and particularly their children and their children’s children down through the many generations. In selecting a companion for life and for eternity, certainly the most careful planning and thinking and praying and fasting should be done to be sure that of all the decisions, this one must not be wrong” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball [2006], 193). 

What can we do to encourage young people to set a goal to be married in the temple? How can we help them prepare for this?

An eternal marriage should be the goal of every Latter-day Saint. This is true even for those already married by civil law. To prepare for an eternal marriage takes much thought and prayer. Only members of the Church who live righteously are permitted to enter the temple (see D&C 97:15–17). We do not suddenly decide one day that we want to be married in the temple, then enter the temple that day and get married. We must first meet certain requirements.

When you ask for a temple recommend, you should remember that entering the temple is a sacred privilege. It is a serious act, not something to be taken lightlyWe must seek earnestly to obey every covenant that we make in the temple. The Lord has said that if we are true and faithful, we will enter into our exaltation. We will become like our Heavenly Father. Temple marriage is worth any sacrifice. It is a way of obtaining eternal blessings beyond measure.