Question
Gramps,
If my parents are sealed to each other and they keep their covenants they made in the temple and remain faithful throughout their lives, can us, as children, still inherit one of the 3 kingdoms of the Celestial kingdom? Even if we break away from the church and don’t keep the covenants? (doesn’t mean I will, just curious) Thanks heaps!
Garrett
Answer
Dear Garrett,
I would encourage you to read Elder David Bednar’s article in the March 2014 Ensign entitled “Faithful Parents and Wayward Children: Sustaining Hope While Overcoming Misunderstanding“. In that article, Elder Bednar writes:
[F]aithful parents can invite the power of heaven to influence their children. Nevertheless, those children remain agents unto themselves, and the choice to repent or not ultimately is theirs.
The fact that a child’s parents have made, and are keeping, temple covenants, does not excuse the child from the need for repentance and an individual acceptance of the Atonement of Christ. Indeed, a child’s conscious decision to sin now and rely on their parents’ temple covenants later, will probably make the repentance process even more painful and difficult.
Gramps
