It is a stunning gift to enter into the covenant of marriage within the temple. This covenant is not just between husband and wife, but also with God. This has breathtaking implications, not only in the eternities, but now.
Today I share a quote from a mind-shifting article that President Nelson wrote. He is teaching about all the covenants we make, and as I study these words in relation to the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, I see the years of our marriage with more informed eyes. The Lord’s imprint is everywhere.
Just as marriages and families share a unique lateral bond that creates a special love, so does the new relationship formed when we bind ourselves by covenant vertically to our God! This may be what Nephi meant when he said that God “loveth those who will have him to be their God” (1 Nephi 17:40).
This is exactly why, as part of the covenant, a special mercy and love—or hesed—is available to all who enter this binding and intimate relationship with God, even “to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9).
Making a covenant with God changes our relationship with Him forever. It blesses us with an extra measure of love and mercy. It affects who we are and how God will help us become what we can become. We are promised that we, also, can be a “peculiar treasure” unto Him (Psalm 135:4).
Russell M Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant,” Liahona, October 2022.