Me and my girlfriend have been going out for a while now, and somehow stumbled onto the topic of marriage and the temple. To understand the dilemma first I'm going to give a little bit of background. She has had issues with relationships in her family in the past. She was abused by her birth father, who her mother has since divorced and her step dad has had 2 wives before her mom both of which were temple marriages that were annulled. They have all been sealed together as a family but her dad cheated on her mom. This has caused a lot of resentment towards temple marriage for her. We got onto the topic and she said that she would get sealed in the temple, but would require a civil union for about 3 years first. (An emergency way out of the situation probably caused by the abuse that she saw her mom take as a child.) My background from my parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on is that you should never settle for a civil union. If they won't go to the temple first thing then you should proceed with your life. We got into a large disagreement about it and it ended up with her saying well you can take me as I am or leave me. We haven't spoken in about 5 days now. I love her more than anything except for God and Jesus Christ, and it's tearing me up inside. Could you guys accept a temporary civil marriage, and then get sealed or do you feel that it is a situation that will cause more problems than help? Please help
-SomebodySomewhere101