Originally written approximately 10 months ago - April 2014?

Over the past year, I have been lucky enough to serve as a teacher in the Young Women's organization in my ward. I have been so inspired by their kind and loving hearts, their strength in the gospel and their desires to do good. There are not cliques among our Young Women - they treat each other as best friends and sisters in the gospel. In all honesty, I have learned much more from them than they could ever learn from me. I was particularly grateful for this sacred calling this last Sunday, when I was teaching my Beehives about blessings we receive through the power of the priesthood. As part of my preparation for teaching this lesson, I read a talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks about the way the priesthood should be used in the church and the family. Although I didn't end up using this during my lesson, I feel that I was inspired to read over this great talk, primarily because of this section, where he talks about how his mother raised he and his siblings after the death of his young father:

The faithful widowed mother who raised us had no confusion about the eternal nature of the family. She always honored the position of our deceased father. She made him a presence in our home. She spoke of the eternal duration of their temple marriage. She often reminded us of what our father would like us to do so we could realize the Savior’s promise that we could be a family forever.

I recall an experience that shows the effect of her teachings. Just before Christmas one year, our bishop asked me, as a deacon, to help him deliver Christmas baskets to the widows of the ward. I carried a basket to each door with his greetings. When he drove me home, there was one basket remaining. He handed it to me and said it was for my mother. As he drove away, I stood in the falling snow wondering why there was a basket for my mother. She never referred to herself as a widow, and it had never occurred to me that she was. To a 12-year-old boy, she wasn’t a widow. She had a husband, and we had a father. He was just away for a while.

I anticipate that glorious future day when the separated will be reunited and all of us will be made complete as the Lord has promised. I testify of Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of the Eternal Father, whose priesthood authority and whose Atonement and Resurrection make it all possible, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I have the hope that if God's plan is indeed for me to leave my children and husband this early in our lives, they will grow up with the belief that they have a mother, she's just away for a while. And when our separation is over, we will be joyfully reunited for eternity.

If you have any questions about my beliefs, go to lds.org or mormon.org.