By Erica Williams
The only way to truly comprehend the family and its ultimate destiny is to view it through spiritual eyes, said Elder John H. Groberg of the First Quorum of the Seventy in a fireside address Friday night, Feb. 27.
Elder Groberg”s address, entitled “Family: the Eternal Perspective,” focused on the spiritual nature of family history, rather than on the technological side of the work.
“We live in a physical world, and have physical bodies, but it is the spirit that gives life,” Elder Groberg said. “It is the spirit that gives life to all things, including family history. Without the spirit, there is no existence, no understanding, no life.”
He said in order to understand a family”s purpose, one must use spiritual means: scripture study, counsel from prophets and prayer.
Linking earthly families together through genealogy is a responsibility that everyone shares, Elder Groberg said.
“If we don”t do the work for our ancestors, and if we don”t get married and have children of our own, we will not have linked our generations,” he said.
Elder Groberg said three important influences can help one gain an eternal perspective on the family: past, present and future. He gave examples of each from his own life.
While a mission president in Tonga, Elder Groberg was forced to make a trip across stormy seas to a distant island. He said the boat was old and rickety, and all through the night, he and his family were thrown roughly about the cabin.
He said he was really beginning to pity himself, when a comforting influence came over him. A familiar voice that he couldn”t quite place spoke to his mind and told him not to complain, but to be grateful for any opportunity to serve the Lord.
Elder Groberg said he felt it was the voice of his great-grandmother, an influence from the past that helped him in his present need. He said he learned from that experience that the best thing people can do for their posterity is to be faithful themselves.
While serving as a missionary in Tonga in the 1950s, he had another powerful experience. A devastating hurricane hit the island where he lived, and caused a scarcity of food for two months.
Elder Groberg said although he was near starvation, he experienced a marvelous inward change. He said his physical discomfort became as nothing as he came to understand that the spiritual is more powerful than the physical.
“I realized that the only important thing is your standing in the sight of your Father in Heaven,” he said. “If that is as it should be, nothing else matters. If that is not as it should be, nothing else counts.”
Years later, after he was married, Elder Groberg had another experience which helped him grasp the future potential of his family.
His wife, Jean, was taking his son to a hospital in Utah to have him treated for a congenital kidney defect. As the plane took off, Elder Groberg said he felt a sense of loneliness, and he prayed for the safety of his family.
He said that as he prayed, he received a feeling of overwhelming reassurance from God. As he gazed at the night sky, he said it was as if he could see his eternal family in one of the shining stars.
“That vision of the future potential of a family has never left me,” he said.
