"The Eternal Blessings of Marriage" - Lesson by Marisa D.

Marisa D. presented a wonderful lesson on strengthening our home and family based on Elder Scott’s April 2011 Conference address entitled, The Eternal Blessings of Marriage.

In Elder Scott’s address he speaks of marriage and family being the two vital pillars of Our Father’s plan, and that Satan is relentless to undermine these pillars. No matter who we are we are all part of a family.

Sisters shared some ways that they have found to strengthen families, including:

Recognizing personally and to others the strengths in families of all types around us.

• Trusting the Lord that all will work out if we place our families first. 
• Spending time together, doing things that each family member enjoys.
• Expressing love in the way that each family member prefers, whether that be time, notes, touch, etc.
• Writing sincere and personal notes, emails, letters regularly.
• Passin on family history stories.

“Express that love and gratitude often. That will make life far richer and more pleasant and purposeful. Don’t withhold those natural expressions of love.”

Elder Scott shared a story about a busy time when he was only home for a few hours. He wanted to fix their washing machine to help Jeanene, his wife. After he began, Jeanene asked him firmly to play with the kids. He lovingly obeyed, and had a wonderful time with the children. Early the next morning, one of his children hugged, kissed and whispered, ‘Dad, I love you. You are my best

friend.’ This cemented the importance of that time he had spent with his children.

Elder Scott also said ““As I have thought back over our life together, I realize how blessed we’ve been. We have not had arguments in our home or unkind words between us. Now I realize that

blessing came because of her. It resulted from her willingness to give, to share, and to

never think of herself. In our later life together, I tried to emulate her example.”

The sisters discussed this comment, noting that it was unlikely that they never disagreed, but rather they probably 1) resolved them peacefully and with love, 2) avoided anger and 3) utilized the Atonement resulting in the retrospective view of their past to be entirely positive. Elder Scott noted that “Pure love is an incomparable, potent power for good.” We must have the ideal in our view and work daily toward that goal. 

Since we are not perfect and will fail we must remember that the Atonement allows us to repent when we come up short, and help us to heal when we are hurt. Elder Scott testified, “All things are possible to the Lord, and He keeps the promises He inspires His prophets to declare. Eternity is a long time. Have faith in those promises and live to be worthy of them so that in His time the Lord can make them come true in your life. With certainty, you will receive every promised blessing for which you are worthy.”