Eternal Marriage

"An eternal marriage is eternal. Eternal implies continuing growth and improvement. It means that man and wife will honestly try to perfect themselves. It means that the marriage relationship is not to be frivolously discarded at the first sign of disagreement or when times get hard. It signifies that love will grow stronger with time and that it extends beyond the grave. It means that each partner will be blessed with the company of the other partner forever and that problems and differences might as well be resolved because they are not going to go away. Eternal signifies repentance, forgiveness, long-suffering, patience, hope, charity, love, and humility. All of these things are involved in anything that is eternal, and surely we must learn and practice them if we intend to claim an eternal marriage."

181st General Conference

Elder Scott

Elder Richard G. Scott, addressing the blessings of eternal marriage, said, “It is so rewarding to be married. Marriage is wonderful. In time you begin to think alike and have the same ideas and expressions. You have times when you are extremely happy, times of testing, and times of trial, but the Lord guides you through all of those experiences together. . . . Marriage provides an ideal setting for overcoming any tendency to be selfish or self-centered.”

I absolutely loved his talk. It was quite personal about his own life with his wife, and it was a fairytale relationship...just BEAUTIFUL! He talked about his wife as though she was a queen. She passed away and he talked about all the things he had learned from her. He said she would leave him notes in his scriptures, because he would often have to give a scripture in his meetings, he said when he would flip through the pages he would read them and almost not be able to speak cause they were so sweet. He said he started doing the same to her. He said he could remember one time he punch holed out 100 little circles and wrote 1-100 and on the back he wrote a word. He said he put it in an envelope and thought she'd get a kick out of it. He later found it after she had passed away in her personal things along with other letters he had written her. He said she put all of those lil papers in order and pasted it on a sheet of paper and then put a sheet protector over it, like all the other letters he wrote her besides one letter where he said is still behind their clock face in the kitchen that reads "It's time to tell you I love you"!!! My heart melts thinking about the love that this couple had for one another. It was a true testament to me of eternal companionship, of which I strive to have as a couple for eternity the love that he had testified to me. It was so sweet and I was totally engulfed with the spirit. Another speaker that stood out to me was...

Lynn G. Robbins

"People make to do lists of things we want to accomplish, but people rarely have to be lists. Why? To do's are activities that can be checked off the list when done, to be however is never done, you can't earn marks with to be's. To be needs to be a part of my nature, a character of who I am."                              I loved his talk sooo much it was geared to me as a parent because I feel like I am not doing the best I can,or I'm always striving to be a better parent, and his talk was what I really needed to hear! He talked about us parents trying to help our children be like the savior. Discipline comes from the root word disciple and implies patience and teaching on our part as parents. Discipline should not be done in anger, we need to discipline as D&C 121 tells us to by: persuasion, long suffering,by gentleness, meekness, and by love and faint, kindness and pure knowledge. These are all Christ like Be's that should be a part of who we as parents and disciples of Christ are.  His talk was so in depth and I am sure I will be studying his talk a lot. He said we are in Parenting 505 if we have a child who is very testing for us. Could it be possible that we need this child as much as he/she needs you. Because through this test we can find our Christ like attributes and practice faith, long suffering, kindness etc. He also said do not let  our children believe that what they did wrong is who they are! Never let failure progress from an action to an identity with it's attendant labels like stupid, lazy, clumsy, our children are Gods children that is their true identity and potential! His plan is to help them overcome their mistakes and to become like he is. So to me it is our responsibility as parents to help our kids become who they are and strengthen their self worth, and their character and beliefs of who they are. This is going to be a hard task, but I know I can do this with the Lords help! :)

I am so grateful for the talks that were given! I am always edified and thankful and feel that I just got a tune up on LIFE. It was a wonderful conference and I can't wait to fine tune these things I need to work on. Feeling overly blessed~