Eternal Covenant

                                 Eternal Covenant

The first two people God put on this earth was a man named Adam and a woman named Eve. These two human beings were our first parents who brought fourth many souls, generation after generation, to where we are today. We are very fortunate to have the knowledge of where we all originally came from. Father Adam and Mother Eve were our first parents. They are our ancestors and they started their life together as husband and wife, lawfully wedded by the authority of God Himself to multiply and replenish the earth. These two people were obedient to all of God’s commandments and they have an eternal marriage that no one can ever destroy or take away.

We can all have an everlasting marriage today in the temple of God just like them. And if we are true and faithful to all of God’s commandments, our marriage to our spouse will be eternal. This kind of marriage is a covenant marriage where two people give 100% of their life to each other and make sacred promises to uphold their marriage vows.

In this week’s reading, an article from the November 1996 Ensign written by Elder Bruce C. Hafen called, “Covenant Marriage” tells of three kinds of wolves. Elder Hafen said that every marriage is tested repeatedly by these wolves. He said, “The first wolf is natural adversity. After asking God for years to give them a first child, David and Fran had a baby with a serious heart defect. Following a three-week struggle, they buried their newborn son. Like Adam and Eve before them, they mourned together, brokenhearted, in faith before the Lord.”

The second wolf he talks about is our own imperfection. In marriage, when a man criticizes his wife too much, like complaining about her cooking, the way she talks, or dresses or acts, to the point of stripping away all her self-worth and self-esteem is not a happy marriage. On the other hand, if he were to do just the opposite, he would be building his wife up and both will be able to have a joyful marriage. I know this kind of treatment to be true in my own life. I’m blessed with a husband who tells me each day how much he loves me, appreciates me, supportes me in all my goals and dreams and does his best to encourage and strengthen me each day and continually helps me build my confidence and self-esteem. I am a better woman because I have the best man by my side to help me see my self-worth in this life when I sometimes feel worthless.

Elder Hafen said, “The third wolf is the excessive individualism that has spawned today’s contractual attitudes. A seven-year-old girl came home from school crying, ‘Mom, don’t I belong to you? Our teacher said today that nobody belongs to anybody—children don’t belong to parents, husbands don’t belong to wives. I am yours, aren’t I, Mom?’ Her mother held her close and whispered, ‘Of course you’re mine—and I’m yours, too.’ Surely marriage partners must respect one another’s individual identity, and family members are neither slaves nor inanimate objects. But this teacher’s fear, shared today by many, is that the bonds of kinship and marriage are not valuable ties that bind, but are, instead, sheer bondage. Ours is the age of the waning of belonging.” This must be a very difficult thing to comprehend, especially for any young child to go through. However, she is blessed to have a mother who can help explain to her that she does belong to her and that she no longer needs to worry. My marriage in the temple extends the blessing of being together forever to not only my spouse, but to all my children under the covenant as well. We need to remember to allow our own freedom and to not exercise control above or over our spouse. No good can come of it.

In conclusion, the world today looks upon marriage as a social custom and a legal contract to live together but, to me as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, my marriage to my husband is much more. In the temple of God, I was sealed to my husband for time and for all eternity. And as we both continued to put Jesus Christ and God at the center of our lives, we know that together we can get through anything. We not only have each other, but we also have the blessings of heaven on our side to strengthen us during life’s thunderous storms. Our loving Father in Heaven has given us the law of eternal marriage so we can become like Him. The Lord has said, “In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]; And if he does not, he cannot obtain it” (D&C 131:1–3).