Why Can't I Watch My Own Child's Wedding in The Temple?

After raising your child their whole life, it is expected that you will be able to attend their wedding. It is a moment of celebration and joy. It is a moment to be shared. You want to support your child in this big decision, watch them commit to the love of their life, and express congratulations. Then they come to you and tell you that they are getting married in the temple where only select people may enter and you are not one of them. This is hurtful, your own child telling you that you cannot see them make their wedding vows. It even sounds like they are saying they don't want you to be there, after all that you have done for them, they come to you and tell you that you are not invited to their wedding.

This same hurt and pain is felt by God our Father when we say, 'after all You have done for me in raising me, teaching me, training me for the difficulties to be experienced on earth, and sending me down here to earth, I don't want You to be part of my life,' or, 'I don't want You to be a part of my marriage.' How rude we are to have done the same thing to our Father and then when our child wants to get married by Him, we think God has made some big offence to deny us access to His presence, access that we ourselves have rejected. You see, "the temple is a house of God, a place of love and beauty." God invites all people to get married in His way, in His presence and with His power. The temple is the only place on earth where someone can get married with His power for the time on earth and for all eternity. This privilege is not available outside of the Holy Temples of God. Your child loves their fiancee so much that they want that love to be sealed and bound together forever and the temple of God is the only place where this can be done.

You see, God is a God of love, mercy, justice, and cleanliness. He loves all of His children, even those who reject Him. He grants mercy to all who are merciful. He punishes all who break His laws. And He requires that all who enter His kingdom be clean. Once a temple is dedicated to God it is part of His kingdom and all who enter must be clean to a certain standard that He has set. That means that if your child is getting married in a temple of God they are clean enough to enter God's presence. We should rejoice that they are worthy of this privilege.

God uses many opportunities to call us to Him. One example of this is death. When we die we no longer have our bodies clothing our spirits and this feels like a bondage and captivity which is a symbol of the separation that we experience from Him when we reject Him. Likewise, the feeling of hurt and rejection by our own children God allows to consider how He feels when we reject Him. This is an opportunity to accept Him, become clean and join your child in being clean in the presence of God. This may not be able to be in time to attend their wedding in the temple, but the joy of being in God's presence with your child will provide the healing from the hurt and pain of rejection. I believe that at some future day, even if it is after this life, God will provide you the vision of the wedding that was missed and all will be made right through Christ Jesus.