Marriage in the Church

Today I read Doctrine and Covenants section 74. This section is about a verse in 1 Corinthians as Joseph Smith was translating the Bible. The verse in question was 1 Corinthians 7:14 which talks about the unbelieving spouse is sanctified by the believing spouse. The Lord states though in this section that Paul's counsel to not marry an unbeliever was his own and did not originate from the Lord.

However, it makes sense and is good counsel to follow because as the Lord states in this section, your desires are conflicted when you marry someone who does not share your religious convictions. You can have totally different opinions about how to raise the children spiritually speaking. That is why when I was growing up I made certain to marry a member of the church, so that it was one less hurdle to have when raising my future children. It's hard enough marrying someone of the same religion and melding the two family lifestyles let alone trying to meld different religions.

It's funny to me really. I am from the South and I married a woman who was raised in the Northeast. You would think both of us being American we would not have to overcome any cultural barriers or have too many things that were different and truth be told we meshed really well and it was not all that difficult. But you just don't think about 2 people from the same country as having a cultural barrier, at least I don't. But I also tend to get along with just about everyone. I dated a girl from Taiwan for several months in college and we got along really well also and the only fights we ever had, were over cultural misconceptions. The thing that makes it easier to overcome those cultural oddities though is having a common background in the church. If you have that, then the core values that you both have are going to be the same and you are both centered in Christ and everything else is really superfluous.

The rest of the section talks about raising children and how children are holy and sanctified through the Atonement of Christ. It is a comfort to know that little children are saved in Christ. I cannot even imagine losing a child and the pain that must be associated with it. But it would certainly be a comfort to me to know if it happened to me that the child was received unto the Lord and that thanks to the sealing power I would see him/her again some day. We have talked about most of this when we read Moroni 8 but it is a comfort to be reminded of it.

I am a firm believer in what President Kimball once said, that any two faithful Latter-day Saints can get married and make it work, they just have to be committed and work at it. Because as anyone who is married will tell you, marriage is work. But it is SO worth it and a wonderful thought to know that I will spend eternity with my wonderful wife. I can't imagine anything more wonderful than that. I hope you feel the same about your spouse and are actively working on fulfilling the commandment to become one flesh. Until tomorrow.