IS IT YOUR ANNIVERSARY?

Jo and I were married on May 15, 1993.  It was a subsequent marriage for each of us.  Blending families was not easy for us or our children.  Often it seemed like somebody felt caught in the middle of something.  Issues such as resentment, frustration, betrayal, jealousy, abandonment, anger, and comparison made this marriage challenging for all involved.  The stress on our marriage relationship created by these ongoing concerns was intense at times.  To relieve some of this pressure and remember why our marriage was important, Jo and I decided to get away for a weekend on or around every anniversary.  We chose to go to Park City, Utah because we honeymooned there and staying in the same hotel, eating at the same establishments, and doing the same things reminded us of our love and eternal commitment to each other and to God.  We kept moving forward, day after day, trying to meet and surmount each challenge we encountered.  After ten years we were still together.  We considered that quite an accomplishment and decided to add an extra day to our anniversary weekend to celebrate those ten years together.  We decided to spend that extra day in the Provo Temple.  We couldn’t think of anything better to remind us of the ordinance that sealed us together for time and all eternity.  We planned on attending an endowment session but as we approached the check-in desk at the temple we noticed a sign indicating that help was needed for proxy sealings.  We offered our help and were quite excited because participating in eternal sealings would make our temple visit even more personal and poignant.  About midway through the sealing session, I was sitting to the right of the sealer, serving as a witness and my wife was sitting in one of the chairs near the altar.  After the sealer finished an ordinance, he paused momentarily in silence.  He then turned to me and asked, “Is it your anniversary?”  Astounded, I acknowledged that it was.  He congratulated us and then resumed performing the proxy sealings.  I pondered then, and reflect upon it even now.  Certainly, that was a man who was in tune with the Holy Ghost.  But even more than that, he was conveying a message of congratulations from God to us.  To me it was a tender mercy, extended after a decade of struggle to keep our promises and encouragement for the years that could follow.  We have never forgotten that moment and what it meant to both of us.  We knew we weren’t alone in this challenge.  Heaven was watching and no doubt “cheering us on.”  We recently celebrated our twenty-ninth anniversary.