Preparing for Marriage

As was very clear right from the beginning of conference, marriage and family is a very important topic to consider right now. While many people will note that I am not married, I have a rather unique situation where I already know who I am going to marry, and when. I have known who and when for just under one year now, and I have just under one year left to prepare. For those of you who dont know, this very long waiting time is due to the fact that before we start our family, someone in Germany needs her to teach them.

Warning: I am waiting for a missionary. Side note: yes I am actually waiting, yes I am sure, no I have not dated anyone else in the time she has been gone and I have not had the desire to.

If we did not feel the importance that she serve at this time, I guarantee we would already be sealed and happily starting our family. I have heard many things during the past nine months or so ranging from admiration that I am dedicated, to indifference, to disbelief, to outright critisism. To all I answer that our first desire is to do the will of our Father, who knows best. She needed to serve and I personally can not wait for the day when on the other side I meet every person she served while she was on her mission, and hear the stories of how they effected one another.

There are many difficult things reguarding waiting and being apart so long, but there are several major blessings I have received. First, I have come to appreciate everything she is to me on a whole new level. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, and for me that has certainly been the case. Second, I have come to have an appreciation of what the temple sealing really means to me. I have had time to reflect and grow personally. I have had time to better myself and learn what I really want my family to be like. Third, I have had to rely on my Heavenly Father in difficult times. When I have been lonely and wished her home, he has shown me visions of new families being sealed because of her efforts. It has given us the opportunity to every day pray for the well-being of one another, an invaluable habit.

While it may be hard at times to listen to talk after talk, day after day about marriage and family, to see my friends getting engaged and married while I wait, and to watch the clock as every day seems an eternity, I know that when we look back from the eternities at our life, we will see this time as but a small sacrifice compared to the inexplicable joy it will have created.