Families are together forever...

Yesterday, we watched as our friends buried their twin baby girls, Sierra and Faith, who were within a week of beginning life here on Earth. It was exceptionally heart breaking to watch two parents bury children they never got to know. Our hearts go out to Michael and Kasey right now, and their three older children.

I was feeling particularly down after the service, even though we had planned to go to the temple last night anyway. I was sad the entire way down to the temple, until the moment I sat down in the temple session. After that I felt my spirits lift a little (and it helped that I got to sit next to my friend Erika too). By the time I got to the celestial room, I felt so much better. Its one thing to say you know that families can be forever together, and another all together to feel the power and reverence behind those covenants we make to actually become together forever.

"Part of the process of reaching into the eternities comes when we must deal with the experience called death. This life is hollow without a belief in and an understanding of immortality. Said Paul, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”¹¹ The Atonement and the Resurrection of the Savior are the grand keys that open the locks of immortality. The greatest fulfillment of these blessings, if we are worthy, comes to us in the holy temples of God. Within their sacred walls, those who hold the power and authority bind in heaven that which is bound in earth." President James E. Faust.


I said to my dad yesterday, "How can words about living together forever take away the sting? It just doesn't seem adequate enough." His answer surprised me, "It can't away the sting. Those words aren't adequate enough. They are words. True peace comes from hope in the Savior, hope in His atonement and hope in the resurrection."  


I felt a lot better after contemplating these things in the temple. Many times I find myself at work, or out with friends and I find myself absolutely flummoxed as to how they can find meaning in life without the gospel of Jesus Christ. I would be an absolute wreck of a human being without knowing who my Savior is, or what He has done for me. While I'm devastated for our friends' loss of their children, I find myself thanking Heavenly Father that they have the gospel, that they have temple covenants and that they know their Savior.