Dating & Eternal Marriage

Right marriage begins with right dating.

—Elder Spencer W. Kimball

The Lord has given us standards for dating so we can have greater happiness protection and success.  Standards are rules or guidelines given to help us measure our conduct. Why has the Lord given standards? He wants all his children to return to live with him one day. However, he knows that only those who are worthy will be able to live with him. Standards will help us know how well we are in preparing to live with our Father in Heaven again.

For the Strength of Youth teaches: “Choose to date only those who have high moral standards and in whose company you can maintain your standards. … Always be kind and respectful when you ask for a date or when you accept or decline one.”

What does he/she inspire in you … ?

“Remember that a young man and a young woman on a date are responsible to protect each other’s honor and virtue.” As you go on dates, make sure to do nothing of which you would ever be ashamed. As President Thomas S. Monson taught, “In dating, treat your date with respect, and expect your date to show that same respect for you.”

Proper dating is a part of the preparation for a temple marriage. Marriage is ordained of God, and is a sacred ceremony, and should receive the highest preparation and importance before they enter upon a contract that involves either happiness or misery for the rest of their lives.

The purpose of eternal marriage is to bear children and rear a family with whom we will be able to gain exaltation. Joseph Smith taught, “Except a man and his wife enter into an everlasting covenant and be married for eternity, … they will not have any children after the resurrection”

President Lorenzo Snow taught: “When two Latter-day Saints are united together in marriage, promises are made to them concerning their offspring that reach from eternity to eternity. They are promised that they shall have the power and the right to govern and control and administer salvation and exaltation and glory to their offspring, worlds without end."

What a great promise! If we are sealed for eternity and continue to live worthily, we will be families forever!!

The temple should be always in our sight, and we should strive to behave in a way that will get us in there sealed with our eternal companion forever.