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The following was written by Nancy B. Rollins for LDS Living. To read the full article, click here. 

All I ever wanted to be in life was a full-time wife, mother, and then grandmother. When divorce became a reality in my life, it was almost more than I could bear. I could imagine many other sorts of trials and afflictions in life that I could handle, but NOT THIS. I felt like Job when he said, “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me” (Job 3:25).

Particularly, I was concerned about my seven children, as you no doubt can imagine.

Divorce is always, always hard—even when, as President Hinckley has said, it is now and then justified [see President Gordon B. Hinckley, “What God Hath Joined Together,” April 1991 General Conference]. So it’s my goal to make the impact of divorce on children more understandable, from both a scholarly and a doctrinal perspective. I want to talk first about the way children might make sense of divorce— emotionally and intellectually, depending upon their age and stage.

…

Temple Covenants and Divorce

This is admittedly a very brief overview of a complex topic. But with this brief background, let’s now transition to the concept of temple covenants. To help children understand temple covenants after divorce, adults must first understand what happens to covenants following the divorce of a couple who has been sealed in the temple. So let’s clarify what is known.

All covenants are made with God—think of baptism and the temple endowment, for example. In the case of the sealing ordinance, however, the covenant is between a couple and God. God never breaks his covenant with us, but we may break our covenants with him, and/or with our marriage partner. The blessings pertaining to all covenants are contingent on worthiness and must be sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise to be in effect after this life.

Consider the words of President Joseph Fielding Smith:

To read the full article, click here.