One country singer speaks of how the he cannot think of how heaven could be better than being with his wife. He wonders why people look forward to heaven since he seems to have reached the sum felicity of existence when with his wife. The answer is this: What he experiences with his wife is a taste of heaven. He is right: being with one’s spouse righteously is heaven.

Now in life his challenge is to be righteous so he can keep the gift of his wife (and she must be righteous to keep the gift of her husband). If they are righteous, they will continue to have the blessing of each other in heaven. If not, they will be separated, and hell will be knowing what they once tasted and could have had forever but lost.

(See my article on losing the privilege of being a spouse and parent in the next life if living beneath those privileges and duties in this life.)

You see, marriage is the status of the Gods, and we are the children of God, with the opportunity of becoming Gods. God has given us a great trust in this life in allowing us to enter marriage; will we respect it or throw it away? Marriage with all of its rites (not rights) and duties can be hard sometimes but it is worth it. In fact there is nothing of greater worth. This is the one thing that has potential to last forever.

Some have thought that a temple marriage simply makes a marriage valid to last forever. This is true, but the deeper event that takes place in a temple marriage is that a relationship is formed and refined across the years with the added companionship and cleansing effect of the Holy Ghost, which gives that marriage character of such a union that it’s worth staying together forever. We’re not just getting permission to stay together forever, we’re getting help to make something worth lasting forever. (Truman G Madsen speaks of this in his book Marriage and Family which is a collection of discourses, he co-authored with Stephen Covey)

Concerning those who seek cheap relationships for physical pleasure without moral grounding and parameters: How ironic that the very thing many sell their souls for will be the thing they lose in the next life, because they didn’t obtain it in the right way. Well did Jesus say, that those who seek to enter by climbing over the wall instead of going through the gate will be damned.

If we are to have forever the greatest joy of marriage and rearing children, we must seek that joy through Jesus Christ, the keeper of the gate. He is, as he said, “the way”.

For those of you who know of the joy of marriage but still have not experienced the joy of rearing children, I assure you it is a similar ecstasy which adds another dimension to your fulfillment and satisfaction beyond anticipation. As going from single to married is akin to living in 3D instead of 2D, so is becoming a parent akin to living in 4D instead of 3D. If you don’t know what that means, I will give you this hint: parenthood is when you enter “a new heaven and a new earth”.

So can heaven be better than marriage? Heaven is marriage. And glory therein awaits!