Hey baby, I think I wanna marry you...

“...No. We are not dying. Time is dying. Damn time. It dies continuously. And we live. We invariably live. When you wake up, it's spring, when you fall asleep it's autumn, and winter and summer flash between them a thousand times, and if we love each other, we are eternal and immortal, like a heartbeat, or rain, or wind, and that's a lot. We gain days, my love, and lose years! But who cares, who cares? A moment of joy — that's life! Only it is closest to eternity.”

“Us” is not only about relationships, it is a marriage - union. Which we strive for every day, filling each other, helping each other to grow, develop, become better for each other every day.

Marriage is the eternal thing that connects your hearts together, what motivates you to believe. That the eyes of the person opposite are your dearest eyes, the hands that you hold during the sealing are the very hands that you will hold forever, in joy and sorrow and will never let go. That waking up in the morning, even when you turn 80, you will listen to each other's breathing to understand that one more moment your hearts are beating in unison - this is the very power of marriage, even after years to understand that there is no dearer person to you than the one with whom hand in hand you have passed this thorny path called life.

Despite the fact that the age limit for making one of the most important decisions in life has changed, the meaning remains the same. We are also looking for and finding the one who is unique, who would accept us with all our shortcomings and advantages.

But family life is growth, both physical and moral, it is an experience that you share with each other, and that is why there are several main stages of the relationship, which I will tell you about today.

The first of which, of course, is dating. It just gives us the opportunity to get to know each other, to understand what we want from our future half, what we want to avoid, or what we want to change in ourselves in order to build a healthy relationship with a person who is ideal in our eyes. This stage helps us to become the best version of ourselves.

The second is the courtship stage. Relations at this stage take on a more formal character. It is during this period of time that you give yourself and your potential partner the opportunity to understand whether this relationship is worth continuing, whether something can come out of it and whether you are ready to work to see the continuation of this story.

The third stage involves engagement. This stage prepares us for marriage, at this stage we understand how important a person is to us and what sacrifices we are willing to make for him. We learn not only about the most intimate details about each other, but also get to know each other's families, understanding and accepting the importance of the step we are moving towards.

The fourth and I would like to say the last stage, but the whole life is still ahead and this is marriage! This stage is not only accompanied by physical intimacy, but also incredibly close emotional intimacy as well, now you are a wall, understanding, support, faith and hope for each other. And this is a promise that you not only make among yourselves, but also with your Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, for this life and for all eternity.

It was arranged by God in the beginning, long before this world’s mountains were ever formed. Remember: “Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man” (1 Cor. 11:11).

President Lorenzo Snow gives us a picture of the importance of celestial marriage: “When two Latter-day Saints are united together in marriage, promises are made to them concerning their offspring that reach from eternity to eternity. They are promised that they shall have the power and the right to govern and control and administer salvation and exaltation and glory to their offspring worlds without end. And what offspring they do not have here, undoubtedly there will be opportunities to have them hereafter. What else could man wish? A man and a woman in the other life, having celestial bodies, free from sickness and disease, glorified and beautified beyond description, standing in the midst of their posterity, governing and controlling them, administering life, exaltation and glory worlds without end!” (Lorenzo Snow, The Deseret Weekly, 3 Apr. 1897, p. 481.)