Dear Gramps,
Growing up in the church, I have always been taught that families will be together forever. I have also been taught that we will have eternal joy if we make it into the celestial kingdom. What I don’t understand is, is that if your family is divorced, how can you be together forever? And how can you be happy if let’s say you make it into the celestial kingdom but a family member doesn’t. Wouldn’t that sadden you, diminishing your eternal joy?
Gidgtmidgt
Dear Gidgtmidgt,
The operational phrase is, I believe, families CAN be together forever. Those families that propagate their familial relationship into the eternities are those that make and abide by sacred covenants in the holy temple. If a couple make those covenants and then get divorced, they have violated the sacred covenants that they have made with the Lord, and the promised blessings will not be received. True happiness is the result of living in accordance with “the great plan of happiness” (Alma 42:8), which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
A person who receives a fulness of joy, may yet feel sorrowful for those you are caused to suffer because they rejected the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even the Father feels sorrow because of the iniquity of His children.
And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains? (Moses 7:28) See Moses 7:28-37.
Gramps
