Brad Wilcox shared from his book ‘Changed Through Grace’:
As we consider all “his grace imparts: (Hymns, no. 146), few can imagine a greater gift than to be sealed together with their families for eternity. Yet, knowing the struggles all families face perhaps the greatest gift is not only that families can be sealed, but that they can be healed so that they want to be together forever.
When my son, Russell, was in the Missionary Training Center in Spain, he participated in a question-and-answer session with teachers. All the missionaries were asked to write questions on papers, and then the instructors would pull the papers from a bowl and respond. Not too long into the session, one of the teachers pulled out Russell’s question and read aloud: “What if we are teaching a family that doesn’t want to be sealed for eternity?” The teacher said. Who wouldn’t want to be sealed forever?”
Actually, it was not a silly question. We spend much time and effort in temples sealing ancestors together, but maybe they were in unhappy marriages. Perhaps some women were trapped into staying with their husbands because they were financially dependent on them. We might be sealing children to parents who were abusive. Comfort is found in understanding that vicarious work for the departed never overrides people’s agency, but is also found in knowing that people can change. If I were answering Russell’s question, I would have said, “If people say they don’t want to be sealed, they don’t need to be. However those desires may change as people change.”
Through Christ’s grace, people can change. Here and hereafter, families can change. We can all be helped to “overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good.”13 The Savior can change our very natures.
“Accept yourself” and “be who you are” are great slogans when it comes to physical characteristics over which we have no control. However, when it comes to moral choices, that define our characters, these phrases become little more than excuses. By rejecting absolute truth and creating their own version of right and wrong, many people seek to erase the need for change, improvement, and emulation of the divine. They speak of tolerance and acceptance but want it to extend in only their direction. They don’t realize that one-sided tolerance and acceptance can quickly become vices rather than virtues as they begin to threaten freedom for everyone.~Brad Wilcox, Changed Through His Grace (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2017), 25-27
