This summer we are planning a big family campout and are inviting lots of our old friends. I thought how exciting it is going to be to see some of these people. Aw, the good old days! Then I began thinking about our children, and I hoped that in the future, when they are grown, they can also be our good friends whom we will want to spend time with.
In the LDS Church, I've heard some people say that they believe they knew their families before they came to earth. Now I don't believe there is any confirmed scripture or doctrine on that specific point*; however, I did ponder that if that is true, and I did, in fact, know my family in the pre-earth life, we probably were really good friends who said we wanted to help each other through this earthly journey. I even pondered that perhaps I committed or even covenanted that I would provide bodies for those spirits who would become my earthly children! Again, don't take that as LDS doctrine; I'm just pondering here.
The whole idea that my little children could have been my friends before this earth life, and that they can be my friends, people I actually like to be with, when they are grown, made me feel a little more patient and a little more excited in being diligent in teaching them to become people that I will like as adults, as Julie Beck similarly stated in her Conversation on the Mormon Channel.
*If you've found an article on this topic of knowing our families before we came to earth, please save me some time and point me to it!
2 comments:
Emily, I think it is true doctrine that we made covenants to our children before we came here. Joseph Fielding Smith said this:
"Now I wish to ask a question: How will a young married couple feel when they come to the judgement and discover that there were certain spirits assigned to them and they refused to have them? Moreover, what will be their punishment when they discover that they have failed to keep a solemn covenant and spirits awaiting this mortal life were forced to come elsewhere when they were assigned to this particular couple?" (Conference Report, Oct. 1965, p. 29)
and I know that Ezra Taft Benson has also said something similar about that we covenanted to our children that we would bring them to earth. I can't find the quote in my pile of stuff but I will keep looking for it!
Maybe that's why our kids have so many of our qualities when they come...not DNA, but eons of pre-mortal friendship!! :)
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