We should not set or standards so high as to eliminate every possible marriage partner.
A loving Father gave us the charge and the blessing to be fruitful and to multiply and to have dominion so that we can develop and become even as He is.
I had never thought that the purpose of having dominion is to make us like Him.
An important part of being fruitful that is sometimes overlooked is that of bringing forth the kingdom of God upon the earth.
There are two ways to correctly interpret that statement: multiplying and being a righteous parent brings forth the kingdom; and sharing the gospel has similar blessings to bearing children.
We become fruitful as we abide in Christ and as we “take upon [ourselves His] name [and] … serve him to the end” by helping others come unto Him.
In our day, living prophets and apostles continue to lift their voices to invite each one of us to become fully engaged in the work of salvation according to our abilities and opportunities.
The starting point of a response that yields much fruit is to “be meek and lowly in heart.” We can then more fully come unto Christ as we yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit and keep all the covenants we have made. We can seek and receive the gift of charity and have power to invite our own families, our ancestors, and our member and nonmember neighbors and friends to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I just made the common mistake of conflating “be fruitful” with “multiply.”
The body enables Heavenly Father’s obedient spirit children to experience life on earth. Bearing children gives other spirit children of God the opportunity to also enjoy life on earth. All who are born in mortality have the opportunity to progress and to be exalted if they obey God’s commandments.
Marriage between a man and a woman is the institution that God ordained for the fulfillment of the charge to multiply. A same-gender relationship does not multiply.
A legal and lawful marriage sealed in the temple and in which the sealing covenants are honored gives parents and their children the opportunity for the best experience of love and preparation for a fruitful life. It offers them the ideal environment in which they can live their covenants made with God.
is amazing that we can argue otherwise in modern society.
Because of His love for us, Heavenly Father has provided that all His faithful children who do not or are not able to enjoy the blessings of a covenant marriage and children or a fulness of those blessings for reasons not of their making will, in the Lord’s appointed time, enjoy these blessings.
Living prophets and apostles have counseled all who have the opportunity to enter into the covenant of eternal marriage to proceed in wisdom and faith. We should not put off the time of that sacred day because of worldly pursuits or hold our expectations of a suitable companion at a level that disqualifies every possible candidate.
To subdue the earth and have dominion over every living thing is to control these things so they fulfill the will of God as they serve the purposes of His children. Subduing includes gaining mastery over our own bodies. It does not include being helpless victims of these things or using them contrary to the will of God.
Developing the ability to subdue the things of the earth begins with humility to recognize our human weakness and the power available to us through Christ and His Atonement. For “Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.” This power becomes available to us as we choose to act in obedience to His commandments. We increase our ability by seeking the gifts of the Spirit and by developing our talents.
The challenges facing human society today, including immorality, pornography, armed conflict, pollution, substance abuse, and poverty, flourish because many in the world have turned themselves over by choice “to the will of the devil and the flesh” rather than to the will of God. “They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world.”
Note that it isn’t as simple as, “those in poverty are poor because they have turned themselves over to the will of the devil …”
Heavenly Father has charged and blessed us to be fruitful, to multiply, and to subdue the earth that we might become like Him. He has made help available that we may each, according to our individual choosing, actually grow to become like Him. I pray that we might all live our lives such that we will be guided by the vision of our divine nature, claim all our divine privileges, and fulfill our divine destiny.
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