Marriage contracts (lesson 4)

This last week in my marriage studies we were asked to read a couple of different talks, one of those talks was Covenant marriage, by Bruce C. Hafen who was a member of the quorum of the seventy Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He gave this particular talk back in 1996, but it is still incredibly relevant for our day.  In this talk he makes a point of not letting our marriages simply become contracts. Which I believe that there is a legal part to marriage that is a contract, but he is encouraging us to make our marriages more than that. Realize that when we are married, we are working with that person to reach heaven again. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints, we believe that we will be able to live and be with our sweetheart for eternity. Only if we remain true to covenants, we make in the temples. When we are married in the temple, we make a covenant, to heavenly father, and to our spouse. Elder David A. Bednar talks about being married in the temple and how traditional marriage is important, he says “More recently the devil has attempted to combine and legally validate confusion about gender and marriage. As we look beyond mortality and into eternity, it is easy to discern that the counterfeit alternatives the adversary advocates can never lead to the completeness that is made possible through the sealing together of a man and a woman, to the happiness of righteous marriage, to the joy of posterity, or to the blessing of eternal progression.” Getting to eternity can be a lot of hard work, and as we have talked before sometimes it doesn’t work out the way that we have planned. However, there are somethings that we can do in order to give ourselves a little help in our relationships. One of the things that I try is to always find something to be grateful for about my spouse, and some days this is incredibly hard when they are just driving you up a wall. I promise it will catch them off guard if things are a little tense between you two and then you just pipe up and say something like “you know I’m thankful that you went to work for us today and worked hard while you were there.” It helps you remember to appreciate the little things, and it helps them know that you recognize what they are doing. Another thing that is a fun thing to add to your marriage, is keeping the honeymoon phase alive, that is easier said than done but sometimes all it takes is leaving cute little notes around the house for your spouse to find. The last thing that I would mention is to never forget God. He is the reason we are here, and here together with our sweethearts. Make sure we put him first in our day, then as we get closer to him individually we get closer together as a couple. 

Have a Happy Day!