12:45pm, Jeff and I were sitting in the sealing rooms talking to our sealer, while our guests were situating themselves in our sealing room. It was interesting to note that while talking to the sealer that he pointed out that "the Lord has directed the two of you, in such pleasant circumstances, to meet and marry here this day." I truly believe this to be true. I had no reason to take that stupid MIS class other than to fulfill credit with the university and he had to take the class because it was required for his major, our majors on the retrospect of things are completely opposite on the scale, it later came to our attention that we had a mutual friend in common and may or may not have met in the future, but I believe that God wanted us to meet. And boy am I glad that I sat next to him one day and introduced myself, and then later invited him to the sobe bombs! :) After dating for a year, we finally set a date, and March 7, was just about a year from when we first met, and here we were waiting in a sealing room, not ours, to be sealed together for all time and eternity by one who held the proper authority, in a room where most of our loved ones were gathered, both alive and dead (in spirit that is). As I knelt across the alter from my dearly beloved husband to be, my heart was full and my eyes were wet, behind him and to the left sat my mom, andrea, mikke, and stacy; to the right of him sat his mom, meischa, and kurtis. Our witnesses were his dad and mine. I don't know who sat behind me because I couldn't see, nor was I that interested since they were family of his that I had never met (but soon would meet and would be my family too)
Only a few things that I remember off the top of my head that was spoken in the sealing, that there were indeed those living now, those that had passed on before, and those spirits that have not yet lived, were there witnessing this day the great magnitude of our sealing and the potential that we have yet to recieve and acquire. Also, that our meeting and the experiences that we have had in our lives have not been by any means an accident or coinsidence, and in fact we will be surprised just how much the Lord has directed and guided our paths. And I remember the feeling that I had, as I looked into the eyes of someone I thought I loved with all my heart, and realized at that moment, that I hadn't really known what love was till then, my heart with all emotion was full and incredibly at peace, for I knew I was exactly where I was suppose to be with exactly whom I was suppose to be with, and that my friends, is what revelation and joy is all about.
Unlike civilian matrimonies, in the temple you do not say, "I do", instead you say "yes" and I remember clearly choking out the words "yes" because I was crying. I was not sad, upset, or doubtful, I was very much sure of the knowledge given to me that Jeffrey K. Smith was going to be my husband For-ev-er, and that was indeed was what made the crying start- the unremarkable realization that God has given us, if we obey him, the right to be married for all of eternity, nothing seperating us, and this I knew, and loved (love).
I am so glad, more than glad- exstatic that both Jeff and I were worthy to go through the temple to be sealed together as a married couple for all of this life and the life to come, I am so grateful for that knowledge and for the knowledge that I have of the gospel and the plan of salvation, the resurrection, and the life, our lives, and especially the life of our Savior, who made this all possible for me and my husband, and everyone in the whole wide world!
