"While here, we have learning to gain, work to do, service to give. We are here with a marvelous inheritance, a divine endowment. How different this world would be if every person realized that all of his actions have eternal consequences. How much more satisfying our years may be if in our accumulation of knowledge, in our relationships with others, in our business affairs, in our courtship and marriage, and in our family rearing, we recognize that we form each day the stuff of which eternity is made. Brothers and sisters, life is forever. Live each day as if you were going to live eternally, for you surely shall."
"‘Until death do you part’ is a ceremony of marriage, but it is also a bill of divorcement.” The statement was not new with him, but it struck forcibly those who heard it and who knew the particulars of his story. It is true: a wedding ceremony under the law of the world unites in marriage and at the same time decrees its separation. Yet the family is divine. It was instituted by our Heavenly Father. It encompasses the most sacred of all relationships. Only through its organization can the purposes of the Lord be fulfilled. Thankfully, the Lord has given to His children the opportunity to be sealed in eternal marriage, in “a new and an everlasting covenant,” a “blessing … instituted from before the foundation of the world.” (D&C 132:4, 5.) Once you have gained this blessing, go forward with the assurance that death cannot break it—that only two forces in all the world can weaken and destroy that binding: sin and neglect."
I've been thinking a lot this week about how to translate the immense amount of feelings I have into words that communicate the impact this week has had on me and Casey. Between a funeral, a sealing, and the anniversary of the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith, my religion has been in the forefront of my mind, and the Spirit has been in my heart.
Last Saturday Casey's grandpa Byron Duke passed away. He was nothing more than a pure, good man. A man who always smiled. A man with immense talent. A man who worked hard. A righteous man who loved his wife, loved his children. Fourteen years ago he had a stroke which made it very difficult for him to continue welding and wood-working, but he never stopped. He refused to use a wheelchair, and he pushed forward with great strength. He adopted me as his grand-daughter. The first time Casey took me to his grand-parents' house I was instantly embraced, and it really felt like I had grandparents again. Grandpa Duke always had a smile for me. The last time I saw him, we sat on their back deck playing with Shelby and talking about his family. He teased Grandma Ruth and admired the work we were doing in their backyard. He was happy.
The first thought I had about Grandpa after we received news of his death was that he could move again. I don't just believe in an afterlife, I know there is life after death. This is not to say we have not been a house in mourning. The funeral was wonderful and hard. Poor Shelby did not understand why we all cried so much. Casey got to give the family prayer, and I got to sing with his sisters and mom. The Veterans gave him a beautiful tribute at the gravesite. But through all of this, through all our tears, we know Grandpa is still Grandpa and we will see him again.
Death is one of the those necessary parts of the plan of salvation, but it is the scariest and saddest part. The remarkable part about this week, was that Casey and I were able to partake in one of the most joyous parts of this earthly life: eternal marriage in the Temple. On Saturday we went to a sealing for two of our best friends. Before going to the temple, I was in a pretty crabby mood. It had been a hard week and an exhausting week. However, as Casey and I drove to the temple and went inside, I realized it was exactly what I needed. I was overwhelmed by the Spirit there and felt like I had come home. The ceremony was beautiful. My wonderful friend had lost her dad last year only 2 months before giving birth to her and her husband's first child. It had been an unimaginably hard year for her. To watch her and her husband enter the sealing room and be married for time and all eternity was indescribable. Then they brought in their little boy, who is only 10 days younger than Shelby, and he was sealed to his parents for all eternity. This ordinance and the covenants made are the very things that helped the Duke family get through the last week. We are an eternal family. Death has no power over our sealing bonds.
To go to a funeral and a sealing in the same week, both for people we know and love, has made me reflect heavily on what I believe and know. I want to be with my family for all eternity. There are some I may not be with, and I cannot control what choices they chose to make. But I know that I will always love them even if I cannot be with them. I am simply overwhelmed with a desire to be better. Life so easily gets away from me and I find myself not reading my scriptures and forgetting to live the life I know I should be living. It is so easy to stop progressing, but if Grandpa Duke taught me anything it was to work hard and if my friends taught me anything it was to not wait to repent and get your life on track. I love the Gospel. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that there is so much more than this life. I'm so grateful that Joseph Smith restored the Gospel to the earth so that I can partake in the plan of happiness and be sealed to my parents, my siblings, my true love and husband, my beautiful daughter, and all those still to come. I love my family more than words can express. I'm so grateful that there is a way to be with them forever.
Yeah, it really is true. I have the best family, the best in-laws, and the best husband and daughter a girl could ask for. I love you all much more than you probably know.
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