Separation

No one likes the separation of death from a loved one.

My last post, BTW....spot on.  He passed away early Saturday Morning.  Heavenly messages helped the grieving and I am so, so grateful my grandparents are together again.

I have had 24 hours to process this loss. To my surprise, I feel much less sad than I thought I would.

Today I got up and shared my testimony of families (in Spanish...I know it was grammatically incorrect, but I knew that the Spirit would guide my words directly to the hearts and minds and our awesome congregation would know what I meant).

I truly have so much joy (gozo) with his passing.  I am sad and I will miss his voice and his belly laugh (especially when he really got laughing and it jiggled his whole body). But for me it was so selfish to want to keep him here here because I couldn't deal with that separation.

His body and spirit are now separated. But that means nothing in the grand scheme of things.  It is just a separation.

Our 5 year old gave me the perfect way to teach, and also to feel the power of the principle of eternal families.

Last week as I was driving back from a doctor's appointment, she was singing the chorus to this song:

The chorus usually goes like this:

Families can be together forever
Through Heavenly Father's Plan
I always want to be with my own family
And the Lord has shown me how I can
The Lord has shown me how I can.

Our sweet and sassy five year old sang so sweetly:

Families can be together forever...

Then paused and bluntly said, "Unless they die.  Then they can't."

I giggled.  And then taught her the principle of truth I would rely on a few days later.

"You're right sweet girl.  Their bodies aren't here anymore.  But their spirits live on.  They don't die.  Our bodies stop working but our spirits are forever.  Our family is sealed together in one of the Holy Temples of the Lord and that means we will be together forever even after our bodies don't work anymore."

She looked at me and then said, "Oh.  I am SO glad!" and proceeded to sing the rest of the chorus with joy.

Families are forever.  Even during mortal separation. Knowing that is awesome and definitely made the sting of death less harsh and final.