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Teaching - The Plan of Happiness
By President Boyd K. Packer
President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
The end of all activity in the Church is
to see that a man and a woman with their children are happy at home, sealed for
eternity.
Many years ago, after World War II, I was attending college. There
I met Donna Smith. About that time I read that two essential ingredients to a
successful marriage are a cookie and a kiss. I thought that was a pretty good
balance.
I attended college in the morning and then went back to Brigham
City to work in my father’s auto-repair garage in the afternoon. Donna’s last
morning class was home economics. I stopped by her classroom before leaving.
The door had a frosted glass window, but if I stood close to the glass, she
could see my shadow outside. She would slip out with a cookie and a kiss. The
rest is history. We were married in the Logan Utah Temple, and that began the
great adventure of our lives.
Over the years I have frequently taught an important principle:
the end of all activity in the Church is to see that a man and a woman with
their children are happy at home, sealed together for time and for all
eternity.
In the beginning:
“The Gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the
image of the Gods to form they him, male and female to form they them.
“And the Gods said: We will bless them. And the Gods said: We
will cause them to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it” (Abraham 4:27–28).
And so the cycle of human life began on this earth as “Adam knew
his wife, and she bare unto him sons and daughters, and they began to multiply
and to replenish the earth.
“And … the sons and daughters of Adam began to divide two
and two in the land, … and they also begat sons and daughters” (Moses 5:2–3).
The commandment to multiply and replenish the earth has never
been rescinded. It is essential to the plan of redemption and is the source of
human happiness. Through the righteous exercise of this power, we may come
close to our Father in Heaven and experience a fulness of joy, even godhood.
The power of procreation is not an incidental part of the plan; it is the plan
of happiness; it is the key to happiness.
The desire to mate in humankind is constant and very strong. Our
happiness in mortal life, our joy and exaltation are dependent upon how we
respond to these persistent, compelling physical desires. As the procreative
power matures in early manhood and womanhood, very personal feelings occur, in
a natural way, unlike any other physical experience.
Ideally, mating begins with romance. Though customs may vary, it
flourishes with all the storybook feelings of excitement and anticipation, even
sometimes rejection. There are moonlight and roses, love letters, love songs,
poetry, the holding of hands, and other expressions of affection between a
young man and a young woman. The world disappears around the couple, and they
experience feelings of joy.
And if you suppose that the full-blown rapture of young romantic
love is the sum total of the possibilities which spring from the fountains of
life, you have not yet lived to see the devotion and the comfort of longtime
married love. Married couples are tried by temptation, misunderstandings,
financial problems, family crises, and illness, and all the while
love grows stronger. Mature love has a bliss not even imagined by newlyweds.
True love requires reserving until after marriage the sharing of
that affection which unlocks those sacred powers in that fountain of life. It
means avoiding situations where physical desire might take control. Pure love
presupposes that only after a pledge of eternal fidelity, a legal and lawful
ceremony, and ideally after the sealing ordinance in the temple are those
procreative powers released in God’s eye for the full expression of love. It is
to be shared solely and only with that one who is your companion forever.
When entered into worthily, this process combines the most
exquisite and exalted physical, emotional, and spiritual feelings associated
with the word love. That part of life has no equal, no
counterpart, in all human experience. It will, when covenants are made and
kept, last eternally, “for therein are the keys of the holy priesthood
ordained, that you may receive honor and glory” (D&C 124:34), “which glory shall be a fulness and a
continuation of the seeds forever and ever” (D&C 132:19).
But romantic love is incomplete; it is a prelude. Love is
nourished by the coming of children, who spring from that fountain of life
entrusted to couples in marriage. Conception takes place in a wedded embrace
between husband and wife. A tiny body begins to form after a pattern of
magnificent complexity. A child comes forth in the miracle of birth, created in
the image of its earthly father and mother. Within its mortal body is a spirit
able to feel and perceive spiritual things. Dormant in that mortal body of this
child is the power to beget offspring in its own image.
“The spirit and the body are the soul of man” (D&C 88:15), and there are spiritual and physical
laws to obey if we are to be happy. There are eternal laws, including laws
relating to this power to give life, “irrevocably decreed in heaven before the
foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated” (D&C 130:20). These are spiritual laws which define
the moral standard for mankind (see Joseph Smith Translation, Romans 7:14–15 [in the Bible appendix]; 2 Nephi 2:5;D&C 29:34; 134:6). There are covenants which bind, seal, and
safeguard and give promise of eternal blessings.
Alma admonished his son Shiblon, “See that ye bridle all your
passions, that ye may be filled with love” (Alma 38:12). A bridle is used to guide, to direct, to
restrain. Our passion is to be controlled. When lawfully used, the power of
procreation will bless and will sanctify (seeTeachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith[1998],
158).
Temptations are ever present. Because the adversary cannot beget
life, he is jealous toward all who have that supernal power. He and those who
followed him were cast out and forfeited the right to a mortal body. “He
seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi 2:27). He will tempt, if he can, to
degrade, to corrupt, and, if possible, to destroy this gift by which we may, if
we are worthy, have eternal increase (see D&C 132:28–31).
If we pollute our fountains of life or lead others to
transgress, there will be penalties more “exquisite” and “hard to bear” (D&C 19:15) than all the physical pleasure could
ever be worth.
Alma told his son Corianton, “Know ye not, my son, that these
things are an abomination in the sight of the Lord; yea, most abominable above
all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy
Ghost?” (Alma 39:5). We cannot escape the consequences when we
transgress.
The only legitimate, authorized expression of the powers of
procreation is between husband and wife, a man and a woman, who have been
legally and lawfully married. Anything other than this violates the
commandments of God. Do not yield to the awful temptations of the adversary,
for every debt of transgression must be paid “till thou hast paid the uttermost
farthing” (Matthew 5:26).
Nowhere is the generosity and mercy of God more manifest than in
repentance.
Our physical bodies, when harmed, are able to repair themselves,
sometimes with the help of a physician. If the damage is extensive, however,
often a scar will remain as a reminder of the injury.
With our spiritual bodies it is another matter. Our spirits are
damaged when we make mistakes and commit sins. But unlike the case of our
mortal bodies, when the repentance process is complete, no scars remain because
of the Atonement of Jesus
Christ. The promise is: “Behold, he who has repented of his sins,
the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more” (D&C 58:42).
When we speak of marriage and family life, there inevitably
comes to mind, “What about the exceptions?” Some are born with limitations and
cannot beget children. Some innocents have their marriage wrecked because of
the infidelity of their spouse. Others do not marry and live in single
worthiness.
For now I offer this comfort: God is our Father! All the love
and generosity manifest in the ideal earthly father is magnified in Him who is
our Father and our God beyond the capacity of the mortal mind to comprehend.
His judgments are just; His mercy without limit; His power to compensate beyond
any earthly comparison. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of
all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:19).
Reverently now I use the word temple. I envision a sealing room and an altar
with a young couple kneeling there. This sacred temple ordinance is much more
than a wedding, for this marriage can be sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise,
and the scriptures declare that we “shall inherit thrones, kingdoms,
principalities, and powers, dominions” (D&C 132:19). I see the joy that awaits those who
accept this supernal gift and use it worthily.
Sister Donna Smith Packer and I have been side by side in
marriage for nearly 70 years. When it comes to my wife, the mother of our
children, I am without words. The feeling is so deep and the gratitude so powerful that I am left almost
without expression. The greatest reward we have received in this life, and the
life to come, is our children and our grandchildren. Toward the end of our
mortal days together, I am grateful for each moment I am with her side by side
and for the promise the Lord has given that there will be no end.
I bear witness that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of the
living God. He stands at the head of the Church. Through His Atonement and the
power of the priesthood, families which are begun in mortality can be together
through the eternities. The Atonement, which can reclaim each one of us, bears
no scars. That means that no matter what we have done or where we have been or
how something happened, if we truly repent, He has promised that He would
atone. And when He atoned, that settled that. There are so many of us who are
thrashing around, as it were, with feelings of guilt, not knowing quite how to
escape. You escape by accepting the Atonement of Christ, and all that was
heartache can turn to beauty and love and eternity.
I am so grateful for the blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ, for
the power of procreation, for the power of redemption, for the Atonement—the
Atonement which can wash clean every stain no matter how difficult or how long
or how many times repeated. The Atonement can put you free again to move
forward, cleanly and worthily, to pursue that path that you have chosen in
life.
I bear witness that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that
the Atonement is not a general thing that is for the whole Church. The
Atonement is individual, and if you have something that is bothering
you—sometimes so long ago you can hardly remember it—put the Atonement to work.
It will clean it up, and you, as does He, will remember your sins no more. In
the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
“Sealed For Eternity”
cji
5/1/15
Unlocking the key of
happiness
eternal and unending
forever
what the world
searches always
while right there in
the Scriptures
Psalms 73 – 1 Peter
3:7
and so many more to
be found
family it’s all about
family
our family –
generations ago
generations still to
occur
knowing who we are
and why
children of our
Heavenly Father
mortal probation to
be proven
worthy of eternal
progression
sealed for eternity
within family!
Copyright © 2015 –
cji
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