Gospel Message Day 363

Eternal Marriage

There are 4 topics left. I decided to choose from the 4 for today, since I wanted to tie it in with Elder Scott's passing. I love Elder Scott so much. Over my years as a college student and single adult, I have come to love "the Brethren" in deeper, more connected ways than I did as a child and teen. Their messages were so much more relevant to me. They were also much more life-sustaining because I was fully on my own, leading my own life--I needed their guidance. Certain talks would hit just the right mark at certain times. And then there were the lovely experiences of seeing them or even meeting them.

I was blessed to meet Elder Scott twice. I will never forget those meetings, nor the things he spoke of at those particular Stake Conferences. And I will always remember that for his 20 years as a widower, he spoke so tenderly and lovingly of his wife. Eternal marriage (and family) was always a topic at the ready for him. Indeed, reading the Deseret News' article about his death, they quote the bio he wrote on lds.org:

"They (the deceased) provide a powerful motivation for each remaining member of our family to live so that together we can receive all of the eternal blessings promised in the temple," Elder Scott said in his biography on lds.org. “I know that as I continue to live worthily I will have the privilege of being with my beautiful wife, whom I love with all my heart, and with those children who are with her on the other side of the veil, because of the opportunities made possible through the eternal ordinances that were performed in the Manti Temple.”

He always spoke of the eternal bonds he had with his family. His words have always given me hope for when my turn will come to enter a Temple of God and be sealed for eternity to my best friend.

Later in this article, it quotes about their experiences when 2 of their children died. I remember hearing him speak of this at one of those Stake Conferences. He had such a strong testimony of eternal families. When a couple is married and sealed for eternity in the temple, all of the children born to them afterwards are automatically sealed to them. We call it Born in the Covenant. Children not born to the couple but adopted (as the Scotts also did) can be sealed to the couple and then receive the same rights and privileges as if they'd been Born in the Covenant. They belong eternally to the family as well.

"Later, during the night, I embraced my wife and said to her, 'We do not need to worry, because our children were born in the covenant. We have the assurance that we will have them with us in the future. Now we have a reason to live extremely well,'" Elder Scott said in hisApril 2009 general conference remarks. "That knowledge has given us great comfort. We rejoice in the knowledge that all seven of our children are sealed to us for time and all eternity."

As ever, with his beautiful words and serene, kind voice he would reassure us in eternal marriage as well as so many other Gospel subjects. Repentance. Forgiveness. Missionary work. Dating! (Loved his talks on those.) I always looked forward to his talks and was very sad last April when he was not well enough to speak. The last talk I heard from his was almost a year ago. It was on Exercising Faith. He gave such a fabulous list of tools, and in his always gentle way urged us. This one particularly hit home for me:

Don’t yield to Satan’s lie that you don’t have time to study the scriptures. Choose to take time to study them. Feasting on the word of God each day is more important than sleep, school, work, television shows, video games, or social media. You may need to reorganize your priorities to provide time for the study of the word of God. If so, do it!

I knew he was struggling with his health, but this is still a very big surprise to me. Much more than our two other recently deceased Apostles. I will miss his tenderness, his directness, and his ever-flowing love for each of us during his much-needed messages.

But his reunion with his wife--oh the sweetness and joy of the thought brings me to wonderful tears. He has patiently waited and loved and believed. And his eternal marriage has held him up during these 20 years of loneliness. He is lonely no more.