Healing Hearts in the Temple

By Lauren Madsen

I am not sure what I was expecting to feel as I knelt at the temple altar to seal my great grandfather to his second wife. The ordinance card with their names on it had been in my temple bag for over a year, and that morning I had the impression that it was time. I had never met the man, as he had died almost a decade before I was born. He and my great grandmother had divorced when my grandfather was a teenager, and he had remarried in his late forties. My father rarely spoke of my great grandfather, but when he did, mutterings of how he had been “awful to [my great grandmother]” and mean to his only child, and later some of his grandchildren, were not uncommon. From what I gathered, he had been an alcoholic, and that seemed to have a lingering effect on those who remembered him.

For some time, the complicated feelings I had formed for this person in my family tree left me a bit hesitant to do his temple work. He had apparently hurt people I love, and that was difficult to hear. I had even taken his ordinance card into a sealing room previously, but put it in my pocket and chose to do work for someone else that day. It wasn’t that I wanted to withhold blessings from anyone, it was that I wanted my heart to be in a good place as I participated by proxy in this sacred ordinance. 

I was grateful the day had finally arrived when I felt ready to do the work, and perhaps a sense that my great grandfather was also ready. As I heard the sealer perform the sealing, I felt both peace and confidence flow through me: peace that replaced the anguish I had felt over hurt loved ones, and confidence that Jesus Christ’s Atonement could heal the generational hurts that had occurred. Alma 7 verse 12 came to mind, “...that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness.” My thoughts were focused on Christ, on his forgiveness, mercy, and mission, and the big picture became crystal clear. My great grandfather is beloved, and our Savior is mighty to save.

Elder Dale G. Renlund promised  as we engage in temple and family history work: “You'll find not only protection from the temptation and ills of this world, but you'll also find personal power, power to change, power to repent, power to learn, power to be sanctified and power to turn the hearts of your family together and heal that which needs healing.” He also taught that one of the blessings of the work is “Increased family blessings, no matter our current, past, or future family situation or how imperfect our family tree may be.” I am thankful to have experienced these promises firsthand in my own temple and family history work, and I know that miracles await anyone who is willing to serve those on the other side of the veil.