Why I Don't Want a Temple Marriage, and Neither Should You

All through my growing up years I was taught to "Get Married in the Temple" as though this were the ultimate "Happily Ever After".  I've realized since that the Temple Sealing ordinance isn't the happy ending, it is, in reality, the "Once, Upon a Time", the beginning of the story.

I don't want a Temple Marriage, I want an Eternal Marriage, a Celestial Marriage.

An Eternal Marriage is one in which two imperfect people work together to become worthy of the blessings and promises of Celestial glory, a a team, as equally yoked partners.

Because we are imperfect we will often fall short of this goal, to be equal, to always be kind and caring.  But as a couple determined to make it, each person can, and will look past the imperfections of their spouse and look to overcome the imperfections in themselves.

There will always be challenges  in a marriage:

• Loss of employment
• Illness
• Wayward children
• Financial difficulties
• Time demands of other responsibilities 
• Intimacy 
• Getting complacent in the relationship 

and so many more 

If you and your spouse are committed to one another and to working through these challenges together, as a team.  Fiercely loyal to one another, determined to work on the struggles side-by-side, letting your strength as a team overcome all of the outside stuff you will achieve the happily ever after, after all.

Relying on one another, relying on Christ and His Atonement to help heal the hurt in the world around you and improve the weaknesses in yourself, allowing them to be made into strengths.  As a three person team: husband, wife, the Lord you will be unstoppable.  Stumbles may happen, but you can get up and keep moving forward, together. 

That marriage that will survive and thrive through this mortal life, not parted by death, but continuing into the eternities.  This Eternal Marriage, Celestial Marriage is my goal, and I hope it is yours too.