Mom, where are you?
I love my parents for everything they are, even their imperfections.
My parents as long as I've known them have had vices that I've always worried about with concerns of their physical and mental health. When I joined the church a whole new thing to worry about came to my mind and that was the state of their soul in the afterlife. After learning that without a physical form, their vices would be even more intense and consuming. Without a physical body they would have an even harder time overcoming them before their resurrection which for them, would be too late. I've always been told that God would have mercy on them because they are not held to that same standard that us who have embraced the Gospel are. This knowledge never gave me any peace and so in addition to all the normal emotional responses that came with the death of my mom in March, came overwhelming fear for her salvation which gave way to an
even more overwhelming sense of hopelessness for the state of my mom.
Questions would nag me at night while I attempted to sleep:
"would she ever be able to overcome her addictions, her depression,
and the heartache this world caused her that she never gave up?"
"Would she ever accept the Temple work my wife and I would attempt to do?"
"Is she resigned to endless torment of those inner demons and does she even
really have a chance?"
These are just some of the questions that have gone through my mind the last seven months until today. Now mind you I want to state that it's not like I haven't gone to the Lord in prayer asking for answers to those questions; I've begged and pleaded with Him to answer me on my time instead of His, but I wasn't ready. Today I was reading through the Book of Mormon Student manual for my FDREL 121 class for Pathways when I came across the section in chapter 9 titled "2 Nephi 9:25–26. No Law, No Punishment" which had this in it:
President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles, clarified the position of those who do not have knowledge of
God’s laws:
“Provision is made in the plan for those who live in mortality without
knowing of the plan. ‘Where there is no law given there is no
punishment; and where there is no punishment there is no condemnation
… because of the atonement; for they are delivered by the power of
him’ (2 Nephi 9:25).
“Without that sacred work of the redemption of the dead, the planwould be incomplete and would really be unfair” (“The Play and the
Plan” [CES fireside for young adults, May 7, 1995], 4,
www.ldsces.org).
The verse itself that Packer quoted continues to say this: "...the
mercies of the Holy One of Israel have claim upon them, because of the
atonement; for they are delivered by the power of him."
When I read the combination, personal revelation hit me like it's never had before. Suffice it to say that the need to worry about my mom not overcoming her vices is unfounded based off of the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ, that He is merciful and fair, and the fact that she has always been and always will be insanely stubborn. Her stubbornness time is actually a gift that will help her overcome all of this to be able to fully embrace the Gospel and accept the work done on her behalf. I am still wanting to know, and hope she's already overcome these things and have joined those in Paradise, but I now have hope that it will happen either way and I am thankful for that and that God does answer our prayers in His time.
My parents as long as I've known them have had vices that I've always worried about with concerns of their physical and mental health. When I joined the church a whole new thing to worry about came to my mind and that was the state of their soul in the afterlife. After learning that without a physical form, their vices would be even more intense and consuming. Without a physical body they would have an even harder time overcoming them before their resurrection which for them, would be too late. I've always been told that God would have mercy on them because they are not held to that same standard that us who have embraced the Gospel are. This knowledge never gave me any peace and so in addition to all the normal emotional responses that came with the death of my mom in March, came overwhelming fear for her salvation which gave way to an
even more overwhelming sense of hopelessness for the state of my mom.
Questions would nag me at night while I attempted to sleep:
"would she ever be able to overcome her addictions, her depression,
and the heartache this world caused her that she never gave up?"
"Would she ever accept the Temple work my wife and I would attempt to do?"
"Is she resigned to endless torment of those inner demons and does she even
really have a chance?"
These are just some of the questions that have gone through my mind the last seven months until today. Now mind you I want to state that it's not like I haven't gone to the Lord in prayer asking for answers to those questions; I've begged and pleaded with Him to answer me on my time instead of His, but I wasn't ready. Today I was reading through the Book of Mormon Student manual for my FDREL 121 class for Pathways when I came across the section in chapter 9 titled "2 Nephi 9:25–26. No Law, No Punishment" which had this in it:
President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles, clarified the position of those who do not have knowledge of
God’s laws:
“Provision is made in the plan for those who live in mortality without
knowing of the plan. ‘Where there is no law given there is no
punishment; and where there is no punishment there is no condemnation
… because of the atonement; for they are delivered by the power of
him’ (2 Nephi 9:25).
“Without that sacred work of the redemption of the dead, the planwould be incomplete and would really be unfair” (“The Play and the
Plan” [CES fireside for young adults, May 7, 1995], 4,
www.ldsces.org).
The verse itself that Packer quoted continues to say this: "...the
mercies of the Holy One of Israel have claim upon them, because of the
atonement; for they are delivered by the power of him."
When I read the combination, personal revelation hit me like it's never had before. Suffice it to say that the need to worry about my mom not overcoming her vices is unfounded based off of the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ, that He is merciful and fair, and the fact that she has always been and always will be insanely stubborn. Her stubbornness time is actually a gift that will help her overcome all of this to be able to fully embrace the Gospel and accept the work done on her behalf. I am still wanting to know, and hope she's already overcome these things and have joined those in Paradise, but I now have hope that it will happen either way and I am thankful for that and that God does answer our prayers in His time.
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