An Eternal Journey

Last October Elder Andersen spoke about eternal marriage in his talk in general conference. He taught that the temple sealing includes commitment both to God and to our spouse. Speaking of his own sealing to his wife Kathy in the temple, he said, “At that moment, kneeling across the altar, we have a growing realization of the depth of our commitment to God and to each other. The sacred ordinance binds us together with our eternal companion and with God. We solemnly vow to keep the covenants, and the Lord promises us, as we are faithful, unspeakable blessings in mortality and beyond, including thrones, powers, and dominions in the eternal world.” Our covenant in the temple is not just with our spouse but with the Lord as well. Elder Andersen added, “As we increase our love for the Savior, our love for each other grows. Like our own discipleship, our eternal marriage is not a short-term experiment but a journey, an eternal journey of becoming who God desires us to become.” This matches the idea I have been heard before that an eternal marriage is like a triangle with the husband and wife at the base and God at the top vertex. As the husband and wife both move upward towards God on their sides of the triangle, they inevitably move closer together as well. At that ascent upward is, according to Elder Andersen, “an eternal journey.”

            Though marriage may not be a dominant theme throughout the Book of Mormon, it is interesting that it plays a significant role in the first part of the book as Lehi and his family journeyed away from Jerusalem. The only couple for whom we have the names of both the husband and wife are named in the text even before the first verse in Nephi’s introductory summary: “An account of Lehi and his wife Sariah, and his four sons, being called, (beginning at the eldest) Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi.” We see Lehi and Sariah struggle because of their children and their difficult journey they had to make, and we also see the way this brought them together in their marriage. When Sariah feared that her sons had been killed, Lehi testified to her of what the Lord would do for them. Nephi described it this way: “And after this manner of language did my father, Lehi, comfort my mother, Sariah, concerning us.” When the sons did return, she was full of joy and gained a witness of the revelation her husband had received. They then did this: “And it came to pass that they did rejoice exceedingly, and did offer sacrifice and burnt offerings unto the Lord; and they gave thanks unto the God of Israel” (1 Nephi 5:6-9). I don’t know that I have ever noticed before that it was not Lehi who made it a sacrifice; it was Lehi and Sariah together who offered sacrifice and burnt offerings to the Lord. They were brought closer to the Lord and to each other as together they made this offering.

            Marriage also played a significant part in the story of Lehi and Sariah’s journey right after they had obtained these plates. Nephi recorded, “It came to pass that the Lord spake unto him again, saying that it was not meet for him, Lehi, that he should take his family into the wilderness alone; but that his sons should take daughters to wife, that they might raise up seed unto the Lord in the land of promise. And it came to pass that the Lord commanded him that I, Nephi, and my brethren, should again return unto the land of Jerusalem, and bring down Ishmael and his family into the wilderness” (1 Nephi 7:1-2). Nephi and his brothers needed to be married, and their journey could not continue without that possibility. They got Ishmael and his family to come with them, and they didn’t venture away from their first stop until they were married: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, took one of the daughters of Ishmael to wife; and also, my brethren took of the daughters of Ishmael to wife; and also Zoram took the eldest daughter of Ishmael to wife. And thus my father had fulfilled all the commandments of the Lord which had been given unto him” (1 Nephi 16:7-8). The marriages of those sons were a commandment from the Lord, and only after that took place could they continue on their journey. Marriage was essential to this journey in the Book of Mormon, and marriage for us today, as Elder Andersen taught, is an essential journey that we must make to become “who God desires us to become.”