Please, No Empty Chairs!

Yesterday morning Alan and I drove to Los Angeles to attend the temple together. It is amazing to me how just by walking through the front doors of the House of the Lord it can transform you from being in a state of worldliness (cars, noise, phone calls, music, traffic jams, hustle and bustle) to a state of complete calm and relaxation, with a desire to have a spiritual and an eternal experience in a house where pure doctrine is taught and where knowledge and personal inspiration is received. The temple truly is a place of refuge when looked at from that perspective.

While in the temple, I couldn't help but think about the importance of the family. It is central to the Plan of Salvation. Of course, I have the privilege and blessing of being sealed to the greatest family on the earth, of which I am very proud and happy to be a part of. In three weeks Alan and I will celebrate our 34th Wedding Anniversary. Where has the time gone? To think that we started our marriage off right by kneeling across the altar from each other in the Lord's Holy Temple brings me joy beyond description. Our little family of two has grown to eleven and hopefully will continue to keep growing as time marches forward.

The point I'm getting at with all of this has to do with Pres. Eyring's talk last October during the Sunday Morning session of Conference. What he had to say about the eternal family has stuck to me like glue. I think about it often. He spoke of how in many of our LDS homes there are the words "Our Family Can Be Together Forever." He says that there is a gravestone near his home of a mother and grandmother and the inscription on her gravestone reads, "Please, no empty chairs." This mother/grandmother had asked for that inscription because she knew that whether the family will be together depends on the choices each family member makes. He says that the word "please" is there because neither God nor she can compel another to choose happiness.

So, with this post, I'd like to say to my own children "Please, no empty chairs!" with the hope that some day we will all sit down together in a Celestial realm and there will be no empty chairs at our table. I long for this and pray that it will happen one day. I love you eternally Alan, Ryan, Eric, Nicole, Jared, Cheryl, Kyle, Ethan, Ella, and Olivia. We are a forever family!