“Will there be opportunities for marriage in the next life?” Ensign, Dec. 1973, 34
I have never married. Will there be opportunities for marriage in the next life?
Someone has said, “To believe in God is to know that all of the rules will be fair, and there will be wonderful surprises.”
Our single sisters in the Church, without question, are some of the most devoted members. President Harold B. Lee recently said of them, “In your ranks are some of the noblest members of the Church.”
The prophets of God have repeatedly given assurances that there would be exaltation for the faithful, unmarried women. Exaltation requires that the candidates receive the ordinances and the sealing blessings, which means, of course, that they would be sealed to some worthy bearer of the priesthood in the next life and enjoy all of the blessings of marriage.
In our society, the direct initiative concerning marriage, by custom, is the place of the man. As regards proposals for marriage, this places women in a difficult position of having to accept or refuse proposals rather than to initiate them. President Joseph Fielding Smith said, “No woman will be condemned by the Lord for refusing to accept a proposal which she feels she could not properly accept. … If in your heart you feel the gospel is true and would, under proper conditions, receive these ordinances and sealing blessings in the temple of the Lord, and that is your faith and your hope and your desire, and that does not come to you now, the Lord will make it up and you shall be blessed—for no blessing will be withheld. The Lord will judge you according to the desires of your hearts, when blessings are withheld in this life, and he is not going to condemn you for that which you cannot help.” (Doctrines of Salvation, Bookcraft, Incorporated, 1955, 2:77.)