Thinking celestially

Church president Russell Nelson exhorted the saints to “Think celestial!” As one point of difference between what he was encouraging and its alternative, he taught, “Thus, if we unwisely choose to live telestial laws now, we are choosing to be resurrected with a telestial body. We are choosing not to live with our families forever.” Some detractors of the prophets and Christ’s church characterize this doctrine as a threat to take away from those who won’t toe the line something important to them. The more I see of non-celestial thinking, though, the more President Nelson’s words feel like a restatement of choices, explicit or implied, that people deliberately make. For some, family life is not a desired eternity.

Some righteous people through the circumstances of their lives and bodies are for now denied the blessings of spouse or progeny, and prophets have taught that these desires will be fulfilled in the eternities if they live faithfully. Others have these blessings in mortality, but do not value them, and will not be burdened or blessed with them in eternity.

Many choose to be “childless by choice,” or cheer on those who so choose. Many who are married decide to abandon wife or husband, and others do not seek marriage. Their like-minded friends who are happy enough with their spouses for now cheer on the separateds’ and singles’ lack of attachment. Older people declare that their retired, empty-nest years are “my time” and reject any notion that they will be wasting significant swathes of it fortifying relationships with six-year-olds. Married, single, separated. Five children or two dogs. It’s all the same to them, neither good nor bad, all a compound in one. And thus dead, or as President Nelson’s taught, not celestial and alive forever. Think celestial.