The Wayward Child

I am the first person in my family to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and having done so I am used to having family members who are not sealed with me in the temple. My husband is the first person who I am sealed to and I am his as well. Coming from this background we have never had to experience the sibling who grew up in the same house as you and yet has lost their testimony of the gospel. Regardless of whether it has happened to us in the past or whether it is part of the future for our family, however, every family will have to face this trial.

My friend Afton got married over 2 years ago. She was married in the temple to her returned missionary husband when she was 19 years old. This friend is the person who introduced me to the gospel when I was in high school and I took the missionary lessons in her home with her entire family. Currently her two brothers and her husband are all inactive. I was talking to her about the feelings she had based on that. Here is what she said:

The hardest part is feeling like I may never see them come back to the church ever. I don't know if they're going to ever regain the testimony they had for so long. I sometimes get so worried about my brothers because I don't understand how they could have gone away from the church and they were in the same house as me. I'm not sure when this trial is going to end and that scares me. Is my husband ever going to come back to the church? 

In Chapter 16 of Successful Marriages & Families an experience is recounted of a father who had to turn his daughter away from the home. "I remember lying on the bed....sobbing that I wanted my child back, pure and innocent and part of the family again...how can a father kick one of his daughters out of the home?"

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught an important principle during his ministry:

When a seal is put upon the father and mother, it secures their posterity, so that they cannot be lost, but will be saved by virtue of the covenant of their father and mother.

One of the hardest things any one of us may face in this life is the loss of our children. Either our children may be lost due to illness, as was mentioned before, or they may let go of their testimony of the gospel. At any rate, it is important to know that all is not lost. The Lord will be there for us during a trial such as that and our covenants can still be preserved. I decided to talk to Afton's mom Julia on what has helped her to deal with the trial she is going through from her two sons being inactive. Here's what she had to say:

I feel guilty sometimes. Sometimes I sit and think of what I didn't do that maybe I should have. But most days I remember the Lord knows me. He knows my kids. And He loves them anyway. So in that sense, why can't I? The Lord wouldn't give up on anyone. I can't give up either. It'll work out and I'll just love them in the meantime....the best advice I'd give is to stay strong. Keep hoping.