Well, I want to briefly write my thought on marriage.
Firstly, I have had ample opportunity to prepare for marriage in a variety of ways. First, I've developed my living-with-people skills by being kind and learning to work with my family, especially my mother. I believe that the way a young man treats his mother will largely transfer into how he treats his wife. The same skills of respect for womanhood, love, and service are essential. He can learn these skills later on, but it's so much easier to learn them now. Whenever now happens to be. Choices are always made in the present. There is no use procrastinating. Change comes gradually, but it can begin immediately.
Second, I notice that no man or woman alive, including myself, comprehends the potential glory of the marriage relationship. As we begin to look forward and see what a tremendous blessing that central family relationship can be, nurturing that relationship becomes natural and instinctive. Elder L. Tom Perry of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said, "I believe that if we could create in our minds a clear and true picture of eternal life, we would start behaving differently. We would not need to be prodded to do the many things involved with enduring to the end, like doing our home teaching or visiting teaching, attending our meetings, going to the temple, living moral lives, saying our prayers, or reading the scriptures. We would want to do all these things and more because we realize they will prepare us to go somewhere we yearn to go" (“The Gospel of Jesus Christ,” Ensign, May 2008, 44–46). The choices that have the most importance are the ones with the most long-lasting consequences. Marriage has eternal consequences of unfathomable depth.
Third, I love my wife. It is possible to love someone even before you know who they are. How? Because we can know something about them before we meet them. After I received my patriarchal blessing, I had an actual crush on my future wife for several days. Why? Because my patriarchal blessing contains information about her--enough to create a picture in my mind of who and what she is. She is a noble woman indeed, and I love her and want to prepare myself for her love.
Let us be grateful for God's mercy in making marriage such an ennobling, eternal, and glorious relationship.
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2 comments:
This is definitely my favorite post. We think very much along the same lines actually. I treat my mother as the most amazing creature next to whoever my wife is. I constantly tell her she's beautiful, not to flirt (that's wierd), but because she needs to be reminded of that. I tell her I love her, and I tell her she's the best mom ever; I mean all of these things. Also, I am constantly praying for my future wife, and I hope she's doing well in the things she persues. I'm sure she does her best, and will help me do my best as well.
I once told a missionary companion that I thought his wife must be praying for him. He responded, "I hope she keeps praying, and harder." It made me laugh. :)
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