Today's Spiritual Message: Families are Forever

I am well aware of how often I speak on this subject. However, this week marks 17 years since an unforeseeable and tragic scouting accident left my mother a widow and Yours Truly without a father.

For those of you who have lost a family member or any kind of a "loved one," you know what a heart wrenching and soul searching experience this can be.

However, from the earliest days of my recollection, my tears of sorrow were never declarations of defeat or despair, but rather they were the simple longings of a little boy who yearned to hold his father and gaze into his radiant eyes.

"Isn't that the same thing?" you may ask. I would instantly beg to differ. You see, I have never felt that my father is gone forever or that I will never be with him again. On quite the contrary, I have always thought of his absence as a temporary parting, something like a prolonged business trip.

How can I have such a hope? "How could you believe such a tired and foolish superstition?" others would scowl. Yet, my knowledge is pure and simple: I know that because Jesus Christ has risen from the grave, we all will triumph over death.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor. 15:22)

The resurrection of the Savior Jesus Christ is what extinguishes the sting of death.

What is it, then, which gives me the hope of being reunited with my father in the bonds which only family relationships can provide?

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers . . . (Malachi 4: 5-6)

The Savior has sent Elijah to the earth in our day, to restore the "sealing power." Said He to Peter:

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matt. 16: 19)

The same power and authority which Jesus Christ bestowed upon Peter was also conferred upon Joseph Smith in these latter-days.

Thus, it is through the power of the "sealing" ordinance, performed in holy temples, by which I have a hope of being reunited with my father as well as being sealed to my wife and little daughter, Maria.

My wife and I had the privilege and blessing of going to the temple yesterday to feel of the Lord's Spirit and the eternal comfort and assurance that He is always there.

The Prophet Elijah was to plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to their fathers, Foreshadowing the great work to be done in the temples of the Lord in the dispensation of the fulness of times, for the redemption of the dead, and the sealing of the children to their parents . . . (D&C 138: 47-48)

For more on this subject, visit Mormon.org to read about LDS Temples and Family History.