No Empty Chairs

In October I did an FHE for my family. I had my siblings with their spouses (except Caden who is on his mission), my parents, and my nephews and nieces come to my parents house. I spoke about eternal families and how we want to be together forever.

I had come across a blog entitled "No Empty Chairs". It was about a family who had lost a son in a tragic accident. This family realized that if they didnt live worthily, they would not see their precious son again. This story really touched me. I knew if I didnt change my way of life, I wouldnt be with my family for eternity. The more I thought about it, I realized it wasnt just me. We all have things to work on.

It is very easy for my family (or others for that matter) to point fingers at my struggles (I am not trying to say they are wrong, they have every right to be angry with me), but we all have our weaknesses. We all have things to work on. Yes, my struggles will keep me from the Celestial Kingdom, but so will other things. I prayed a great deal about how to approach the subject without hurting other people's feelings. My struggles are very prominent, but other's struggles may not be so, making it hard to realize our own weaknesses. The first step is realizing the things we need to work on ourselves.

Ok, so now that I have gone on a tangent, back to my FHE. I made a box for each family (pictured) that has a tag saying "No Empty Chairs". (Remember the post about me not being crafty and screwing up the cards? Well I think I did pretty good on the boxes, neener, neener) I asked each family to display their box in a prominent place in their home to remember the message. So, what is the message? When we go to heaven and are there for eternity, we want to make sure we have NO EMPTY CHAIRS! We want to make sure we have all lived worthily to fill our chairs. We want our circle to be complete. Even though we have days, weeks, or even months where we cannot even stand each other, we want to be an eternal family.

I made a bigger box to keep at my parents house. I had each family member (even the two year olds) write down the thing they need to work on. Those are sealed and will not be read by anyone but the person who made the commitment. Each year we will look at our "goals" and assess where we stand in our progress. We will then either make new goals, or expound on the previous goals. These goals are kept in the "big" No Empty Chairs box at my parents house. The boxes at our houses have nothing inside, but it is a reminder of the things we need to work on.

I love my family so much and I look forward to the day where we can all be together in the Temple, all being worthy for the blessings of it. More importantly, I look forward to the day we are in the Celestial Kingdom, crowned in the robes of glory, with NO EMPTY CHAIRS! I love you!

Love,

Mami