Families Are Central to God’s Plan
As your loving Father in Heaven, God sent you here to earth to learn and grow. Families play a crucial role in your growth here on earth.
Family is the central building block of a strong society. We aspire to build strong family relationships. Home can be a place where we feel support, safety, and love. Every family can look and feel different. But as we connect with God, we can have stronger families that provide for spiritual, emotional, and physical needs.
You Can Be with Your Family Forever
If your family is a great source of love and joy in your life, it might be hard to imagine any definition of heaven that doesn’t include those relationships. Part of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that families can be together forever.
In the Bible, Jesus gave the twelve Apostles priesthood authority, promising that “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). That same authority from God unites (or “seals”) husbands and wives and parents and children together for eternity in temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today.
These ceremonies performed in temples promise that the marriages of those who are faithful to God and each other can last for all eternity instead of ending at death. We perform these same sealing ceremonies by proxy for our ancestors, who we believe can choose to accept or reject the work done on their behalf.
Family relationships and circumstances can be complicated, and we don’t know how God will work everything out in the next life. But we have faith in God’s perfect wisdom and love and that heaven will be a place of unimaginable joy.
You Can Find Help to Strengthen Your Family
Loving family relationships are most likely to be achieved when founded on the principles Jesus taught. Practicing charity, forgiveness, honesty, gratitude, and other principles taught by the Savior is a recipe for happiness in your family life. As your family draws closer to God through habits like family prayer and attending church together, you will draw closer to each other.
Because we believe families play such an important role in this life and the next, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints works hard to support healthy family relationships. Here are a few ways you can find support for your family: