Insights From a Few Articles...

• “Divorce”, Elder Dallin H Oaks, Ensign, May 2007, p. 70-73
  • Insight: When discussing marriage and divorce in dating, don’t focus on divorce. Before you get serious, make it clear that divorce is not an option. Don’t consider it. It is unnecessary in most cases.
    • Celestial marriage doesn’t contemplate divorce. (para. 11)
  • Insight: Don’t justify things in your relationship. Don’t justify improper behavior of any kind. Be forgiving. Move on. Focus on what you can control: yourself. Remember to improve yourself. Use the atonement. Consider the implications of every action in an eternal perspective.
    • “festering is destructive, forgiving is divine” (para. 22)
    • Justifications in divorce
      • Thinking their situation is different somehow from others.
      • Blaming the spouse’s behaviors.
      • Can’t move forward in the relationship.
      • Parents think it’s worse for the children to have fighting parents than divorced parents.
        • They could go through counseling though. They could change and use the atonement.
  • Insight: If I work to maintain these things now, I can make them stronger habits when I am married. We can be stronger, and prevent problems, rather than getting to the point where this is a healing thing.
    • How to save a marriage:
      • Mutual commitment to keep the commandments.
      • Stay active in church attendance
      • Scripture reading
      • Prayer
      • Work on their own shortcomings
      • Recognize the importance and power of the Atonement in each other’s lives.
      • Be patient-try again and again.
• “Receive the Temple Blessings”, Elder Richard G Scott, Ensign, May 1999, p. 25
  • Insight: The blessings of temple marriage, being sealed together by the powers of Heaven, far overpower any desire for sin. Remember that and let it be true. No act of love is complete without being approved of first by God. Don’t act like a married couple just because you want to be one. Be patient and wait for the right time in these things.
    • “Decide now to receive the ordinances of the temple at the appropriate time. Don’t let anything overcome that resolve.” (Para 1)
  • Insight: The interview for a temple recommend to be sealed is not supposed to be a scary test we are trying to pass. It is an opportunity to consult with the Lord on your preparedness and worthiness for temple marriage. It is a blessing. “Be honest and candid with them” (para. 2)
  • Insight: We help each other in the temple and along the journey of life. You have been blessed with wonderful friends for a reason. Serve one another.
    • “On your first visit, if possible, take an endowed member of your family or a close friend of your own gender to escort you.”
• “Falling Out of Love … and Climbing Back In”, Name Withheld, Ensign, Jan 2005, p.50–53
  • A good article to read. Good story. Good experience she had to learn from. Keep this in mind in the future.
  • Good people can fall in and out of love. The most important thing to remember is that you CAN fall back in love with someone you’ve lost that love for. You can. It takes work and healing, but with the Atonement, with God, all things are possible.
  • Don’t think divorce and/or suffering is the only options in a marriage that seems to have died. Prayerfully consider your options if you find yourself in this situation.
  • Christ can help us see others in His eyes. He can help us feel genuine and pure love, in all forms, for others. Especially for our eternal companions.