"Families Can Be Together Forever"

Man, the First Presidency message this month is so powerful! President Eyring had very good, practical insights about sealing families together.

"...we can with confidence aim for a heavenly standard in our relationships within our families. We can care enough about our family members, living and dead, to do all that we can to offer them the priesthood ordinances that will bind us in heaven..."

"From my office window I see brides and grooms every day having their pictures taken among beautiful flowers and shooting fountains. The groom often carries his bride in his arms, at least for a few staggering steps, while the photographer shoots wedding pictures. Every time I see that, I think of couples I have known who in time—sometimes in a very short time after their wedding day—had to carry each other in other ways when life became hard. Jobs can be lost. Children can be born with great challenges. Illness can come. And then, habits of having done unto others as we would have them do unto us—when it was easier—will make us heroes and heroines in those trying times when it takes more than we thought we had in us."

"We owe our families the kind of relationship we can take into the presence of God. We must try not to give offense or take offense. We can determine to forgive quickly and fully. We can try to seek the happiness of others above our own. We can be kind in our speech... The Savior, through the power of His Atonement, makes possible the change in our hearts we need to make in order to enter holy temples, make covenants we can then keep, and in time live in families forever in celestial glory— home again."

The applications I took away from this is to cultivate the habit of sacrifice and the Golden Rule now, so that I will be prepared to be more selfless in those trying times. I also want to do better at doing family history--right now, I do indexing, but I would like to  do my family's work more. I also want to work on preparing to be sealed to my husband by trying to be the best I can. It has helped me a lot to imagine what he is like. It helps me know what I need to change.

Help Wanted

"Imagine with me some of the possible spiritual 'help wanted' signs related to the work of salvation:

• Help wanted: parents to bring up their children in light and truth
• Help wanted: daughters and sons, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents, and true friends to serve as mentors and offer helping hands along the covenant path
• Help wanted: those who listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and act on impressions received
• Help wanted: those who live the gospel daily in small and simple ways
• Help wanted: family history and temple workers to link families eternally
• Help wanted: missionaries and members to spread the “good news”—the gospel of Jesus Christ
• Help wanted: rescuers to find those who have lost their way
• Help wanted: covenant keepers to stand firm for truth and right
• Help wanted: true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ

Years ago, Elder M. Russell Ballard issued a clarion call to the sisters of the Church when he said: 'Between now and the day the Lord comes again, He needs women in every family, in every ward, in every community, in every nation who will step forward in righteousness and say by their words and their actions,‘Here am I, send me.’ My question is, ‘Will you be one of those women?'" -Sister Linda Burton, Wanted: Hands and Hearts to Hasten the Work