I’m a Mormon, So…

Chel Owens

I’m a Mormon, so I have been sealed to my husband for time and all eternity in a holy temple. We’ve promised to stay faithful to each other, forever.

©LDS Media Library

Members of the Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] believe that marriages performed in temples are “sealed,” or blessed to last for eternity. The concept that the family unit can continue beyond the grave as a conscious, loving entity, with the marriage partnership and parent-child relationships intact, is a core belief of members of [the Church].

LDS Newsroom

An eternal marriage, sealed in the temple, is one of the essential ordinances a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes -after baptism and receiving one’s personal temple endowments.

This sacred covenant is only between a man and a woman who are worthy. The ceremony is performed by a man who holds the proper priesthood authority. Children born to a couple sealed in the temple are also sealed to that couple, forever.

The sealing ordinance may also be completed after a civil marriage, or even after a person (and that person’s spouse) has died (see Temple Ordinances for the Deceased).

©LDS Media Library

Those who choose not to be married or cannot find someone to make this covenant with are still welcome within the LDS Church and encouraged to do all they can toward that and the other ordinances, and to support and serve the other members as much as all the other members do.

©2023 Chel Owens

……

We Mormons are officially members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and are to drop any name but that. Since many recognize the nickname of ‘Mormon’ and it works with the alliteration so well, however, I will use the term.

My other note is that I will keep to official doctrinal practices. I will add my own application of them, especially in response to comments.

My final note is that I LOVE discussing anything I write. Don’t be rude, obviously, but any and all queries or responses are welcome.

My final note beyond the final note is that I do not seek to convert anyone. I am motivated by forming connections, answering curiosity, and straightening pictures. So, you’re safe.

20 thoughts on “I’m a Mormon, So…”

  1. I’ve always been fascinated and disturbed by that passage in Matthew 22 where Jesus says that there will be no marriage in heaven (at least that’s what it seems like to me.) Marriage seems like a pretty good thing. Why shouldn’t it be in heaven too?

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Chel, you know me, so you know this is an honest question. Has the LDS Church practiced this from early on? And, if this was practiced during the period when plural marriages were allowed, what were the implications (i.e. for subsequent wives, and the children they have)? Thanks in advance for your answer.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hey Rob! Don’t worry; even if you were a caustically-bent internet stranger, I’d answer your question. 🙂

      The importance of eternal marriage was even more applicable during the period of plural marriages; many early Saints practiced it simply to ensure they would get into that highest degree of heaven (where it’s necessary, we’ve been taught, to have this and the other ordinances completed -not that the other parts of that level of heaven are bad to try for, either…). So, many women were sealed to a man but never lived with him or consummated the match, for example.

      As a child, I worried more about the part about children’s being sealed to parents. -Mostly, I wasn’t keen on eternity with my ‘favorite’ brother.- Since having children and considering how they’ll grow into adulthood themselves, however, forever families looks more like an interconnected web than a private hacienda with toddlers underfoot.

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    1. If that person feels s/he can’t answer the temple recommend interview questions, like about following the commandments and having a testimony of faith and The Restoration and such.

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  5. This is something I still don’t understand – My wife (who is LDS) and I married ten years ago. I am not LDS so I understand that I cannot be sealed in the temple. During one of our conversations, Margaret commented that she wished we could be sealed just as she and her ex-husband were. That got me to thinking, “Won’t she be his wife in eternity if they were sealed in the temple?” Jesus told the Sadduccees (who were trying to trip him up theologically with the seven brothers/seven husband thing) that there would be no marriage in heaven. I certainly don’t have the answer to what heaven is like but I do understand the question, “Who’s wife will she be in heaven?”

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    1. A good question! I’m not familiar with the parable Jesus gave but will look it up.

      1. If you divorce and break a sealing then you’re off the hook. I also think (as with any gospel question) that one needs to think about the issue logically. You’re not going to be bound to anyone you don’t want to be. Agency trumps all, yes?

      2. You can be sealed to Margaret (her wishing that means she likes you enough to want to be with you for literal forever) but that means converting to the LDS faith. There’s a lot that looks weird if you’ve not grown up in it, but a lot of the stuff you commit to and grow a testimony of isn’t as strange as I first thought (I’m hoping to elaborate more on this idea when I finally write about my atheist period).

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Yes! I believe this used to be more draconian, like that a woman couldn’t break her sealing unless her ex-husband agreed to it, but know all my divorced friends have been able to remarry and get sealed to their new husband.

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