Question about sealing families if you convert

[Just_A_Guy]

Administratively, I don't know what the Family History Department's position would be.

But from a practical standpoint and answering the question of who-will-be-with-whom-in-the-eternities: A sealing is only valid if both parties keep their covenants. Here, the couple civilly divorced and in so doing (IMHO) broke their covenants to each other.

Whatever might remain on the Church's books for the short run, in reality there's no longer any "covenant" for that child to be grafted into.

[ryanh]

Originally Posted by Lilac

Just wondering...
If we make a full conversion...assuming we have a temple recommend. (I'm thinking way far ahead of myself!)

How does my family get sealed together? In a temple but are the kids with us? Are children allowed in a temple?

Blessings.

I had the honor of attending one such sealing of a family that one of my missionary companions had baptized a year earlier. What a wonderful and spiritual event that was. As others have stated, yep, the kids are actually there at the alter with the parents as the family is all sealed together.

[ryanh]

Originally Posted by Just_A_Guy

Administratively, I don't know what the Family History Department's position would be.

But from a practical standpoint and answering the question of who-will-be-with-whom-in-the-eternities: A sealing is only valid if both parties keep their covenants. Here, the couple civilly divorced and in so doing (IMHO) broke their covenants to each other.

Whatever might remain on the Church's books for the short run, in reality there's no longer any "covenant" for that child to be grafted into.

I think that could be misunderstood by some. I would just like to clarify that just because a divorce happens does not mean that all blessings of having entered into the ordinance are lost.

Elements of the Sealing Ordinance
Having already received your individual endowment and dressed in appropriate temple clothing, both of you will kneel on opposite sides of an altar in the sealing room and there you will receive good and proper counsel. Then, under the direction of the officiator—one of those few men on the earth upon whom the prophet of the Lord has authorized the sealing power to be conferred—you will participate in the ordinance of celestial marriage.

1. Individual covenants and blessings. Each of you will individually and separately make promises, commitments, and covenants with your Heavenly Father and will individually receive promises of blessings conditioned on your individual worthiness. The individual nature of these promises is such that even if one of you were to cease being obedient following your participation in the sealing ordinance and so lose the promises made to you, the other partner who remained faithful would continue to be eligible to receive the promised blessings.

2. Joint covenants and blessings. The two of you jointly will make promises, commitments, and covenants with your Heavenly Father and will make covenants to receive each other as husband and wife. You then will jointly receive promises of blessings conditioned upon your joint faithfulness. The continued faithful obedience of both of you is essential if the promised blessings are to be received jointly. This is because the promises are made to you as one—that is, as a single unit consisting of two halves.

3. Joining in celestial marriage. This element qualifies you to live together as husband and wife under the laws of the land. It is here that you are united forever, becoming one flesh before the Lord and forming a new family unit that, if you are faithful and obedient, will last forever.

4. Blessings for children born in the covenant. All children born to the two of you are born under the blessings of the sealing covenant; thus, it is common to say that your children are “born in the covenant.” They are entitled to blessings of the Abrahamic covenant, including:

a. The gospel

b. The priesthood

c. Celestial marriage

d. Eternal life (see Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 13).

It is revealing to know that even if the two of you cease to be faithful in keeping the covenants you make in the temple, these blessings will still flow to your children. It is equally comforting to know the Lord has provided that adopted children and children born to a couple before they are sealed in the temple (as with new converts to the Church) may be sealed to their parents, and upon such sealing they also become entitled to these same promises and blessings.
[emphasis added]

Marriage in the Lord’s Way, Part One

[Wants2Know]

Ok... so another thought. HIS son was born in that covenant so from your post... I'd interpret that they would still be "sealed". What about my son? Could he still be sealed to me? Or would he have to be sealed to "Us".??

[Generally_Me]

Originally Posted by Wants2Know

Ok... so another thought. HIS son was born in that covenant so from your post... I'd interpret that they would still be "sealed". What about my son? Could he still be sealed to me? Or would he have to be sealed to "Us".??

I would think that if the son was born to you, and you are married to another man who is the boy's bio dad, that you need to go through the Church hierarchy and get the sealing annulled, so you can be sealed to your 'new' husband. That way the boy can be sealed to his actual parents, not his mom and some guy she used to be married to.

If hypothetically, a mother had a baby with a boyfriend and the man she HAD been sealed to was remarried and sealed to another woman, it becomes obvious that the first wife no longer is a part of a sealing covenant, as she has not lived the way she promised.
*****
My parents adopted from Russia when I was 8. My bio sisters and I were allowed to watch the sealing ceremony, though not participate as we were born in the covenant.