Week 12: Divorce, step-families, and aging families

Oh man....this is the last blog post! Mostly excited about it, so hopefully i can make it through this last blog post without ending it too early. But anyways, the last couple of weeks focused on divorce, step-families, and the aging family where kids have left and it's only empty-nesters. Listening more about divorce is just depressing and i never want to come to a point where a divorce would be brought up. Too many people are affected and hurt by it and it's just bad altogether. Like Elder Oaks said in the Mormon Message we watched, if we are ill or sick we don't just give up and pull the plug...you do everything you can to make it better! Marriage is worth fighting for and is an eternal responsibility. Step-families would be hard too, i haven't had to deal with much of them at all in my family, so my insight on them is very limited. And aging familes, my parents are approaching the time when they are empty-nesters in a few years, so that stage will come with retiring and mission and spoiling grandkids, while also taking on chores and responsibilities by themselves.

Woo! that's it! It's been real and it's been fun, maybe not real fun doing these blogs that no one reads...bu whatever

Week 11: Parenting

So for week 11, we talked about parenting and about differing parenting styles. Besides getting married, my next big goal in life is to become a father. Just imaging holding my little baby in my arms as he/she reaches out to poke my face or is peacefully sleeping gets the warm fuzzies all over inside me. With this, i want to be the best dad i can be before i actually become a parent. What could i do now til then? By wanting to make sure the Gospel is taught in my home, by keeping media that i watch and listen to clean and not something i pollute my mind with, and by working hard in schooling and my employment so i can be a great provider.

Also, we talked about the different parenting styles out there: authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. Authoritarian is when the parent is in charge and the kids have no say in the matter, the "boss has spoken" type of thing. Permissive parents let their children do what they want and want to be "friends" with their children. Authoritative parents are in charge, but they also allow their children to have say in matters, so there is some compromise and negotiation. For me, i want to be that type of parent!

I hope to be a good parent when that time comes...i guess we'll see

Week Ten: Fathers & Finances

Man, i cannot wait til i become a father. Being able to hold my little baby in my arms and seeing life in a very real and whole new sense will be amazing. At the same time, i know thoughts will fill my mind like, "How am i going to fully provide for this child? Am i going to raise him/her to be the best they can be in the Gospel?" It's a lot of hard work, but it'll be so worth it. I see how the media portrays fathers as goofs or someone that's optional and it kind of angers me. With all the studies out there to show the big impact of fathers, i feel fatherhood is just as important as motherhood because both of them need to be present to fully prepare and raise a child. With the Proclamation to the World there, it is pretty dang clear the need for fathers and the role they play in a family. For one, i feel that i'll be up to the challenge and strive to be a good father. I'll use some of the things my own father used to raise me and my brothers and implement them with my own style to hopefully parent the way God wants me to. Let's hope so :)

Week Nine: Communication

Making up for lost blog time actually isn't as hard or laborious as i thought...hmmm...anyway, week nine was about communication within the family. I see communication as HUGELY IMPORTANT in a family; it holds them together when mixed together with love at 350 degrees for eternity minutes (it was a cooking joke...ha....ha....ha) But when we had this lesson, i felt the bright light being shone right at my face. For me, in my mind i thought i was a good listener and communicator. I mean, i want to go into marriage & family therapy, so sure i must be good, right?....WRONG. I had a crash course in how good i'm not around this time when my fiancee was dealing with stress with her homework and reminded me about how she needs to vent sometimes and not have me prescribe solutions for it. With how i felt i listened, i would say things like: "oh don't worry about it", "it's not that big of a deal", and "that's easy, you'll be fine"...not the best when looking back on it. It hit me deep when she said i need to listen better and communicate in a way thats less "i need to fix it now" and more "i'm going to help you through it". Since then, i've gotten slightly better at shutting up and listening and better communicating my thoughts and words and actions more constructively.

Week Eight: Stress

My blog blitz rolls on! For week eight in Family Relations, we learned about stress on the individual and the family and the benefits that can come from it. Wait....there's benefits to stress???? Hold on, there must be a mistake somewhere....nope, it's true. In class, there was an example given about astronauts and the effect of weightlessness on their bodies when they are in space. Sure it sounds like fun to float around and not have any pressure on the body, but there are residual effects on them when they return to Earth. With no stress on the body, their bone structure grows weaker because no stress has been applied to the skeletal structure. Their backs get compacted, their muscles atrophy, and so on. The same is with our lives. Without stress, then our lives would be carefree and easy and we wouldn't grow at all. Joseph Smith needed Liberty Jail to teach him some very important eternal doctrines, Nephi needed to cut off someone's head in order to preserve his family lineage and records, and so on. We don't need to experience those types of things, but our own trials and stress shape us to be more in the image of Christ. We need stress....managing it in a useful way is the best way to handle stress.

Week Seven: The "S" word

Holy schmo....i havent made any kind of entry in almost two months. Yikes....well, here is me making up for some lost time. (hooray for class repentance, right?)

Well from this lesson back in week 7, we talked about sexual intimacy between a husband and wife and the sacred powers that are contained in them. For me, i feel that the topic gets a "too taboo" label on it by a lot of LDS members, so they avoid the issue and never discuss it in a mature, sacred manner. With that, people then get the shock of a lifetime when it's the wedding night and they have no idea what to do or how to be delicate to their spouse. I feel that proper discussion on sexual intimacy should be taught more frequent than it is to young LDS adults. With that, they have a better understanding of what to expect and the physiology that goes on. Being in Family Relations and Marriage Prep from last spring has given me a ton of useful information and understanding so when i am married, i know of how God-like these feelings are; and they should be treated and talked about as such.