As I think about the importance of my temple sealing, my mind floods with the memories of early morning, December 28, 1976 when I was sealed to my sweetheart for time and for all eternity.
It was a very cold winter day, there had not been much snow that year in Idaho. I remember entering the Idaho Falls temple early that morning thinking, I am about to enter into a covenant with God and with the woman that I love and adore, which is eternal and that will bind us together forever.
I thought, this is what I have wanted my entire life. I thought, this is what I have taught for two years as a young missionary in Chile. Now, possibly for the first time I began to realize what a tremendous blessing it was to share eternal love with my sweetheart. That love would not die when we did. It was eternal. We were eternal.
I remember entering the sealing room and seeing Lynette dressed in her beautiful snow white temple dress. I saw D.V Groberg, who was our sealer, dressed in a beautiful white suit and standing at the head of the temple alter. I felt the holiness of God. I felt the holiness of His temple. The room was full of family and friends. It seemed to me to be a little part of the Celestial Kingdom right there before my eyes.
I knew that God was pleased with us; we were clean, we were being sealed together by the right authority in the right place.
As I knelt across the alter from my beautiful fiancé and heard the words pronounced by one who had been called of God with the authority of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood, seal us together for time and for all eternity, not just until we were parted by death, but forever, I had a profound feeling of gratitude for the Plan of Happiness that Heavenly Father had provided for me. That day, His plan became a very personal reality for me.
Throughout my childhood, I had been taught what today is found in Handbook 2, 1.3.1. I had also taught these same principles as a missionary: “Exaltation in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom can be attained only by those who have faithfully lived the gospel of Jesus Christ and are sealed as eternal companions. The sealing of husband and wife for time and eternity by the authority of the priesthood—also known as temple marriage—is a sacred privilege and obligation that all should strive to receive. It is the foundation of an eternal family. The nature of male and female spirits is such that they complete each other. Men and women are intended to progress together toward exaltation.”
As I was sealed to Lynette I did feel complete. I knew that as a daughter of God that she brought gifts and talents from God that I would never have. I prayed that as a son of God, that I would be able to bring some gifts and talents that would complement her gifts and talents.
I felt a great feeling of confidence that together we were complete and that together we could accomplish anything that Heavenly Father would ask us to do.
We were excited to be able to bring children into this world who had been prepared for our family for eons of time. As we look back now at the seven children and twenty-one grand-children that God has blessed us with, we begin to realize that families are forever and that after this life which passes so rapidly, all we take with us when we die are our covenants made with God in His Holy House.
If we are true and faithful to our covenants ours is the gift of eternal life; all that the Father has. That is why my temple sealing to my sweetheart and to my posterity is so important to me. It is the only thing that lasts. It is eternal.
I thank God the Eternal Father and His son Jesus Christ for making all of this possible for me and my loved ones. It truly is the Plan of Happiness.