04 May 2011

Comment on the Royal Wedding - and the blog by A Well Behaved Mormon Woman

I read this post Every temple marriage is a royal wedding and tried to paste a comment, but it seems that maybe the comment got lost in cyberspace. So here it is.


I grew up in a family that had been sealed in the London England Temple when I was fifteen years old, and I was regularly reminded that I am a prince in Israel, and I am very fortunate to be married to a wonderful princess in Israel.  So, I guess that, being prince and princess, we had a royal wedding! We were married in 1981 just weeks after some other royals, Charles and Diana, were married. We married in a chapel in Pretoria, South Africa, and then went to the Salt Lake Temple to be sealed a few days later. 

I have often thought about the 'until death do you part' or 'as long as you both shall live' and have concluded that civil marriage ceremonies are performed by officers who receive their licences from the state, and no earthly government can make any binding contract that extends beyond the grave. Yes, many people who know nothing of the LDS doctrines believe that they will see their loved ones beyond the grave. But they cannot count on being married unless their marriage is sealed by the power of the God of Heaven who married Adam and Eve and intended that all marriages should be eternal. That is why it is so wonderful to go to the Temple and perform proxy marriages for those who love their spouses and families, as Emily in Wonderland says, so that they can enjoy the benefits of marriage beyond this life.

I am grateful for my eternal royal wedding. It is sad that the marriage of Charles and Diana did not last as ours did. We wish that William and Kate, and every couple, could be at least as happy as my wife and I are. And through the power of the priesthood of God, and the Temples, there is that promise for those who are married (or sealed) for eternity while in this life, or sealed in the next. Everyone is a child of God, the King of Heaven, so every wedding should be a royal wedding. At least, as one comment said, we ought to rejoice that the royal couple William and Kate chose to be married as so many in England these days do not. And so we rejoice in every choice to marry as husband and wife, and we wish each couple a truly happy marriage. It is regrettable that many people forget their royal heritage and that their Heavenly Father wishes that they would have a royal wedding.