"Peace, Be Still"

I was impressed with Moe's sense of patience, but it was also driving me crazy. By the middle of the summer I was convinced he was the one the Lord had sent me to the Temple to meet, but I didn't know how to tell him.

“He's driving me crazy,” I told Linda one afternoon. “Why can't he ask me out?”

“Well,” she told me, “I talked to my friend in his ward yesterday, and she told me she talked to him on Sunday. She asked him if he would be interested in dating again, and he told her he really didn't like being set up on blind dates, but that for sure he didn't want to date anyone who had already been sealed in the Temple. He says if he gets married again it will have to be in the Temple, and he thinks a woman who's already done that can't do it again.”

“You're kidding,” I agonized. “That's just not true. Of course I can get married in the Temple again!”

“I know,” Linda reassured me. “It's just what my friend says Moe thinks.”

Oh, brother! So that was his hang up. He knew I had been married before, in the Temple, and he had the wrong idea about how Temple sealings worked, so of course he wasn't interested in dating me.

The truth was, if couple was married and sealed in the Temple, and then one of them broke the covenant they had made, the Temple sealing was no longer in force. When Sheldon and I got divorced I'd wanted to get a Temple divorce at the same time, but my Bishop had explained that I needed to wait until I got remarried before I did that.

“You see, Gale,” he'd told me, “when you were sealed to your husband you and he both made covenants and promises to each other and to Heavenly Father that you would take each other as husband and wife, be true to each other, and keep the commandments. In turn, Heavenly Father promised to bless you and seal you together in this life, and in the world to come. Just because Sheldon broke his part of the covenant, you are still worthy of the blessings the Lord promised you, and you don't want to break that sealing until you are ready to be sealed to someone else in the Temple. You're just not sealed to Sheldon anymore, since he broke his end of the covenant.”

It made perfect sense to me. I couldn't figure out why Moe was having a hard time with it. One day I stood at my kitchen sink, worrying and praying about this problem.

“Heavenly Father,” I plead. “what should I do? I can't just go up to Moe and tell him he's got the wrong idea about Temple sealings, but somehow I need to help him understand. What should I do? Who could I ask to talk to him? Should I call his bishop? No, that would be dumb, and really awkward. Since he works in the Temple, should I talk to one of the Temple Presidency and have them talk to him? No, I can't do that. What would I say? Hey, there's this guy I really want to marry, but he doesn't know it yet, and he's got the wrong idea about women being able to be sealed after they've been divorced, so would you talk to him so he can date me and I can tell him I'm the one? Yeah, right. Heavenly Father, what am I supposed to do?”

I stood there, looking out my back window, my hands in the dishwater, when all of a sudden a scripture popped into my head. I don't think actually heard a voice, but the words of this scripture rang through my mind. “Peace, be still. Stand still and see the salvation of God.” It was as if a wave of peace washed over me at that moment, a calm, quiet assurance that I didn't need to worry about things any more. And I knew, then, that Heavenly Father was in control of things, and that He would take care of everything. All I needed to do was just stand back and watch. So I did.