Defending Traditional Marriage

      How many of you have thought about why Traditional Marriage is the best decision we could make? I think about it all the time.  I have friends who are single parents or who have been in one failed relationship after another. I also have friends who are apart of a same sex couples. They were so excited when the state they live in passed the law they could get married. I am grateful for my loving husband who as raised in this gospel and who has the same beliefs as I do. I am glad to be apart of a relationship where go through the tough times together. I am happy my husband is a worthy priesthood holder who can give us priesthood blessing when we need them. In President Russell M Nelson's talk Disciples of Jesus Christ-Defenders of Marriage he says "There is great power in a strong partnership. True partners can achieve more than the sum of each acting alone. With true partners, one plus one is much more than two."

  Because Paul and I were previously married to other people we were civilly married for the first five years of our marriage to one another. When we got engaged we started the process of having my first marriage sealing canceled because we knew it would take a lot of time and the proper things to fall into place. We had two children and one on the way before things were able to be canceled. I was days away from giving birth to my youngest when I got the letter in the mail from the first presidency saying it was canceled. My youngest was born and then a month later during Christmas we were sealed as a family in the Kansas City Missouri temple. President Nelson goes on to say in his talk I reference above "The greatest guardians of any and all virtues are marriage and family. This is particularly the case with the virtues of chastity and fidelity in marriage, both of which are required to create enduring and fully rewarding marriage partnerships and family relationships."

One of the ways me and my husband defend traditional marriage is by teaching our children what we are taught in the Proclamation to the Family. We display in our home in the form of a giant canvas with our families pictures framing it. We also teach our children about the sanctity of marriage by going to the temple as often as we can. Our local temple is the Houston Texas Temple and its luckily close to us. It less than an hours drive from us so its only a couple hours away from them and the bonus is our stake time to go is on a Saturday Early evening.

 Other ways we help in defending traditional marriages is by holding Family Home Evenings, Family and Personal Scripture studies, and Family and personal prayer. The trips to the temple allow us to pray in and for gods guidance in the Lord's house and feel of his love while we are there to shut out the world for small bit of time. I know these things help us become united as a married couple. Also because of putting us on the back burner due to having little children our relationship was struggling and we had a discussion about how we could fight that so we spend a little bit of time after the children go to bed to catch up on each other's day and talk about the things bothering us, or worrying us and just reconnect as a married couple. In conclusion I am leaving you with this quote from President Nelson's talk "The future of marriage and of countless human lives will be determined by your willingness to bear solemn witness of the Lord and live according to His gospel. Great protection is available to us as we enter the waters of baptism and take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ." I think this answers the question posed how we handle the ever increasing persecution we come across as we get closer to the savior's second coming. But we must ask ourselves are we going to be there waiting with the knowledge we did everything to stand as witnesses of him at all times, in all things, and all places when he comes again.