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.

Family Relations: Week Tres!

Ok so i totally forgot about posting something last week, sooooo....(not that anyone would've read it if i did...) But from this week i got:

I took away different things about social class and the kind of demographic things that separate us in the United States. From those videos we watched on Monday, it was interesting that there are such divides among those that are labeled as "Haves" and "Have Nots". And then with Friday and me playing the Mexican dad who leaves his family to go to the United States to find work and opportunity, but instead finds more problems than before....yikes, im not sure i could do that to my family, but some people do do that and i can't imagine what it's like for them. Just role playing was hard enough!

So this is how it feels

Alright, a post that isn't for my FAM 160 class! I pretty much just thought about it as i was getting ready for bed, 'cause i wouldn't be able to fall asleep until i typed this up, so here i am barely awake and making a new blog entry! That usually goes well...

So for those who didn't know already (which is very few i imagine), but i got engaged just a week and a half ago! woohoo!!!! It was certainly a very good day indeed and can't wait to see what unfolds in the future for me and my soon-to-be wife, Natalie. So as i was brushing my teeth, i was thinking about it and the "so this is what it feels like" feeling hit me. You know, the feeling you get when something good seems to FINALLY happen to you and then you get to see why everyone really enjoys it. I remember feeling it when i graduated high school 7 years ago (yikes!). I'd see the seniors and all the cool stuff they get to experience and i was like, "man that'll be awesome when i get to be a senior and walk across the stage to get my diploma". And then it happened and it was great. Then when it was leaving to serve a mission. After three weeks that felt more like three years were over, i finally got to go into the field and experience first hand all that the mission offers and then again when i came home after the two years. Sad to say, i felt that "so this is what it feels like" when i got my first girlfriend ever after almost a year from coming home. Those who know me (or have at least read my blogs) know that marriage has been one of the biggest things i have prayed for and longed for a while, but had to go through A LOT of heartache and headaches to get to this point. One time i got super close to just being engaged last year but then it fell apart and was one of the worst few months i can remember. Now that i've reached this point, i look back and see where i've been and where it has taken me to get to this point right now. The road to get here being engaged sucked, but i love it now knowing that the Lord prepared me for it and to be with someone that is truly wonderful. This "so this is what it feels like" will only continue throughout life, with the next big one coming in August when it all becomes official, followed by children in the future and graduating from college and so on.

So this is what it feels like....i like it