Marriage is the best, but it’s not the finish line.
I don’t think anyone has ever explicitly said that it is, but over the past 15 years as most of my friends have gotten married, I’ve noticed this attitude of wanting to make it to a temple marriage, and then life will be good from there.
Like I said, marriage is fantastic.
But anyone who’s married knows it’s most certainly not the finish line for life.
I think we sometimes fall into setting a standard for when we’ve “made it” –
Whether it’s getting married, finally remembering to read your scriptures every day, once all your kids serve missions, once you have a certain calling…
We can read the words “endure to the end” and think of getting “good enough” and then just coasting.
But Rebecca M. Craven taught us that “enduring to the ends means CHANGING until the end”.
Marriage is a fantastic goal to have and a fun milestone to meet, but LUCKILY my husband and I have changed a lot throughout our years together.
And we are excited to change even more.
We endure together by changing together, improving, maturing, and loving better.
In marriage, in any role that we hold, and as an individual, we not only CAN always improve, but we SHOULD always improve.
Our humble general authorities are beautiful examples of this, sharing their journeys of faith, their new discoveries, their changes…
We never get to just cruise in autopilot.
Maybe that’s an intimidating thought.
But I like it.
I’m never gonna earn it and then just endure. I’ll always have something to work on.
Fun, huh?!
That’s how we will stand guiltless before God on judgment day:
Not because we are perfect and actually blameless.
But because we changed every day all the way to the end.
“If he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world.” (3 Nephi 27:16)
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
