Gone but not Forgotten

     As this Memorial Day has come and gone, my family and I took the opportunity to visit the graves of our loved one's.  My wife and I took this time to help our children know who the people whom we visited as we discussed their lives and accomplishments.  Memorial Day is a great day to reflect upon eternity as our hearts are turned to our ancestors as we go and pay our respects.  I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ that allows me to seal my family together forever.  What a comfort this brings to me to know that once they are gone, that it is only a temporary seperation and that I will see them once again.  Here is a quote from Russell M Nelson in the May 2010 Ensign,

     "Consider the spiritual connections that are formed when a young woman helps her grandmother enter family information into a computer or when a young man sees the name of his great-grandfather on a census record. When our hearts turn to our ancestors, something changes inside us. We feel part of something greater than ourselves. Our inborn yearnings for family connections are fulfilled when we are linked to our ancestors through sacred ordinances of the temple."

     As we were visiting the grave of my wife's mother, we saw this grave nearby.  Through time, the elements have virtually washed away the record from this gravestone.  Cracked, sunken and faded, time has tried to erase the record of this person.  I took this photo because in seeing this old grave-marker so worn and beat up by the elements, this person has not been forgotten with the flowers that had been placed at the top of the headstone.  A reminder that they are still in the hearts of loved one's.  So it is with our Father in Heaven, when we think that we are forgotten or don't matter much anymore, there is always that comforting spirit reaching out to us letting us know that He is there and that we are a child of God.