Marriage as a Divine Calling

I had never really thought of marriage as a divine calling. I always thought of it as something that happened when two people fell in love. It is that, but it is also a divine institution created by God to refine you and help you become who you need to become.

I used to think of marriage as something that may or may not happen for me. If it happened it happened. There was nothing I could do to control it. While this is mostly true, knowing what a divine role marriage is meant to play in my life makes me want to play more of an active role in trying to get there. It makes me want marriage so much more than I did.

It makes sense to me that marriage is a divine institution that plays a pivotal role in our growth and development here on Earth. Everything we do here is meant to help us grow and become more like our Heavenly Father. If marriage was appointed by Him, it must be important and intended to help us become like Him and draw closer to Him. It is something that is eternally lasting and one of the things we must do in order to return to Him. This, to me, makes marriage more of an ideal goal, something to word towards, uphold, and protect.

Now what does this mean for those of us who may never marry? Who may be doing everything they can to achieve that ideal goal, but never attain it here in this life? Does that mean that Heavenly Father loves that person any less because they were not blessed with that celestial blessing that allows growth and becoming? Absolutely not! Heavenly Father loves each and every one of His children and He wants each of us to come back to Him. But marriage truly is one of those things we have no control over whether or not it happens to us because it involves the agency of another person. Heavenly Father may be all-powerful but He will not take away another person’s agency. But He will always love you. And even in the single life, we can still uphold and look to an eternal marriage. Because ultimately we will all have celestial marriage, whether in this life or the next.