Keep Your Eye on the Temple

                                        

"The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally." ~ The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Temples are the Houses of the Lord where blessings and everlasting covenants are made for both the living and those who have passed on. These covenants, enacted by the Father's holy priesthood power, commit the individual to higher promises to the Lord. When kept, these higher promises yield even higher blessings. These covenants when made with your spouse bind you both together for time and all eternity.

It is in these holy temples where worthy church members of sufficient age can come and participate in work for the dead. Heavenly Father does not believe in giving up on His children and will give as opportunities as necessary for them to accept the gospel and return to His side. So those of His children who pass away without the knowledge of the gospel or opportunity to be receive covenants such as baptism, endowment or family sealing in mortality are able to receive them through proxy.

The blessings of the temple strengthen and bind our families together in this life and after death. With the power of the Father's holy priesthood family relationships are perpetuated beyond the grave in both directions of time. As families continue to receive temple covenants and then attend the temple to do work for their dead relatives, both their future posterity and past generations are bound together in eternity.  Your parents will always be your parents, siblings will still be siblings and your spouse your eternal companion. This blessing includes those children who were never able to take their first breath and those children who grew up and strayed away from the light of the gospel. However, we are promised that none of our children are ever truly lost to us. "Those born under the covenant, throughout all eternity, are the children of their parents. Nothing except the unpardonable sin, or sin unto death, can break this tie" (Successful Marriages and Families, 16-173)