One October a few years ago my daughters, husband and I were watching "Scared Shrekless". If you have ever seen the movie "Shrek" this is a continuation of that story. After Fiona and their three children scare away some trick or treaters, Shrek and a few other characters decide to tell scary stories. In one of those stories the Gingerbread-man creates the prefect wife. In the beginning they are happy and loving life with each other.

After some time, though, Gingy starts to feel smothered and decides to try and leave. This only makes his wife upset and she begins to morph into a zombie-like gingerbread-girl. She follows him around for the rest of his story with her arms out stretched saying, "Together forever... together forever..."
So now, naturally, whenever my children or husband ask to be left alone I chase them around the house calling out, "Together Forever!!"

While that's a funny little thing we do in our house, the truth is, we are together forever. My husband and I made some very serious promises when we got married and decided that we would do whatever it took to make sure our family would be together forever. In the LDS faith we believe that a marriage, and a family, can last beyond death. This is a principle that has brought a lot of comfort and peace into my life. It is a wonderful blessing to know that, as long as I keep the covenants I have made with my husband and my Heavenly Father, I will forever be connected to my precious family.

President Gordon B. Hinckley, a prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, put it perfectly when he said,
"Can you imagine two young people at a time when the moon is full and the roses are in bloom and a sacred love has matured between them? Johnny says to Mary, “Mary, I love you. I want you for my wife and the mother of our children. But I don’t want you or them forever. Just for a season and then goodbye.” And she, looking at him through tears in the moonlight, says, “Johnny, you’re wonderful. There’s nobody else in all the world like you. I love you, and I want you for my husband and the father of our children, but only for a time, and then farewell.”

That sounds foolish, doesn’t it? And yet isn’t that in effect what a boy says to a girl and a girl says to a boy in a proposal of marriage when given the opportunity of eternal union under “the new and everlasting covenant,” but, rather, they choose to set it aside for a substitute that can last only until death comes."

Making promises and covenants doesn't guarantee a problem-free life though. Even in a marriage that is supposed to last forever, we have to do our part to make sure both parties WANT it to last forever. Just like Gingy and his perfect wife, we all start our marriages believing that we have found "the one", our "soul-mate", the "perfect man" (or woman). The truth is, no one is perfect, and every marriage is going to experience it's own hardships.

In a talk given by Bruce C. Hafen he said that every marriage would be repeatedly tested by three "wolves". These "wolves" are things that we can either run from or stand and fight against. The first wolf is one I am all too familiar with. It's natural adversity. He gives an example, "After asking God for years to give them a first child, David and Fran had a baby with a serious heart defect. Following a three-week struggle, they buried their newborn son." This is a terrible trial that neither of them had any control over. What they can control is how it changes their marriage. Are they going to mourn together, drawing closer to each other, or will they blame each other and turn away from their once beloved partner?

The second "wolf" is imperfection. As I said earlier, no one is perfect and, when you live with someone, you tend to notice all their imperfections. So, will you run away because their imperfections are too much, or will you stand by your spouse and try to work through it?

The final "wolf" is something that is becoming a larger problem with each generation. Hafen says,
"The third wolf is the excessive individualism that has spawned today’s contractual attitudes. A seven-year-old girl came home from school crying, “Mom, don’t I belong to you? Our teacher said today that nobody belongs to anybody—children don’t belong to parents, husbands don’t belong to wives. I am yours, aren’t I, Mom?” Her mother held her close and whispered, “Of course you’re mine—and I’m yours, too.” Surely marriage partners must respect one another’s individual identity, and family members are neither slaves nor inanimate objects. But this teacher’s fear, shared today by many, is that the bonds of kinship and marriage are not valuable ties that bind, but are, instead, sheer bondage."

There is nothing in this life that is more important to me than my family. My children and my husband are the ones who sustain me, uplift me, and drive me to become better. I want to be with them forever. My husband and I have made sacred covenants to one another and plan to keep them. He will forever be my always, and they will always be mine forever!