the gospel blesses families

In my last post, I talked about how much God loves us, and our relationship to Him as His children. Both of those points carry into the next principle I want to talk about - that the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families.

When we understand that we are literal spirit children of our Father in Heaven, it becomes obvious that the family unit is not something that's been recently created. Rather, it is the social unit that has always existed throughout eternity. God didn't create this earth and then say, "I wonder how I should organize all these people on the earth. How should I send them down there?" He knew, from the beginning, that we would be organized into families.

So why was it so important that we be placed in families here on earth? A family is the best place for us to learn and grow. We've already seen how understanding the role of an earthly father teaches us more about our Heavenly Father, and we know that through our experiences with our family here on earth, we can obtain the greatest amount of joy to be found in this life.

Now, I know that families aren't always perfect. In fact, they never are - but maybe that's the point. I don't learn how to ride a bike by keeping the training wheels on, and I don't learn patience or kindness by being put in a situation where that patience or kindness is never tried. Families come in all different shapes and sizes, full of a variety of personalities and circumstances. Throughout it all, we have opportunities to gain the attributes we're all seeking for in this life.Within the first few years of life, we learn about sharing and patience through our experiences with siblings. We have an abiding trust in our parents, especially when we are young, that teaches us more about love than anything else ever could. We're pretty much stuck with these people whether we like it or not, so we learn about peacemaking, patience, and compromise as we solve problems together.

So how do we find happiness while we're in these family's God's put us in? He obviously has a purpose for doing so, but what is the key to making this situation work?

The bottom line, no matter our family situation, is that "happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ" (The Family: A Proclamation to the World). Jesus Christ was sent here to earth by God to do a variety of things, one of which was to set an example and teach us how to be happy. His teachings, better than anything else, will show us how to deal kindly with one another, how to be nonjudgmental, how to serve our family members.

I'm not claiming to have a perfect family by any means, but I've seen how the gospel has blessed us. The happiness and direction it has brought into our lives has made all the difference. I'd be willing to bet pretty much anything that my family life would carry a lot more discord if not for our foundation in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As a personal example, my youngest sister has Down Syndrome. I can remember well the day she was born (the day we discovered the disability, having no warning beforehand), when my dad told us she would be different. Being a mere seven years old, I didn't quite understand the implications of what he meant when he said she was "special", but I distinctly remember the warmth and peace that abounded in that conversation and hospital room later that day. We knew we had received a special spirit into our family, and we gave her the middle name of "Joy" to represent all the happiness she was bringing into our lives.

In the years that followed, we confronted a lot of challenges that required an extra amount of stalwart faith and other Christlike attributes. We knew we couldn't do it alone, but the knowledge of the plan God has for us and the teachings of His son, Jesus Christ, helped us.

I messaged my parents to ask them to share their feelings on how the gospel helped them through the experience of raising Cami:

A knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has helped us with raising a child with a disability because we have a testimony that families are eternal. This earth life is only one very short part of The Plan of Salvation...Cami's limitations are temporary, and this knowledge lets us know that we are privileged to be her short-term guardians on this earth---with death not the point of separation but a chapter to a new beginning.  Every day we spend with her is a glimpse into the eternal nature of families.

Make no mistake--raising Cami, or any child with a disability, is not always a walk in the park. She requires more care, monitoring, and guidance than any of our other kids. But because we know she and we once lived together as spiritual children of our Heavenly Father, and chose to come to this earth to receive a body and be tried to prove ourselves worthy to return to our Heavenly Father's presence, that knowledge is a huge source of strength to us. We know Cami has already passed her test simply by being born into her earthly body, and that it is up to the rest of our family to prove we belong with her in our Heavenly Father's presence. Physically, mentally and emotionally, Cami may lag behind us, but spiritually she is a celebrity who we all aspire to become like.  Our entire family loves her, and the constant reminder she gives us of the eternal nature of families.

Life is a roller coaster, and I'm so grateful I'm riding that roller coaster in a 7-seater that contains my wonderful family (we'll keep building on as the kids get married). It makes the ride more enjoyable. I know that our families here on earth are ordained of God and that our families can be eternal. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses our family, no matter what circumstance we're in.



Articles on the family:

The Family: A Proclamation to the World
The Importance of the Family
Strengthen Home and Family
The Eternal Family