Parenting! (March 25-29) Oh how I wish I had all those videos when I was a teenager. I see now how clear the problem was growing up and my cousins and I had issues with our parents. Parents have a lot of responsibility with us and it can be frustrating to know what is the best way to teach us to help us make the best choices. People are raised in different cultures and not from the same parents and so if they are not on the same page it can also cause many issues. I definitely saw this in my family I know it was also because our parents were never really home their is probably a lot of other influences in my family in particular that applied to the stress our parents had dealing with us as well as us having to deal with the world and them. As I see the way these videos helped out parents to understand how to help us and them to cope with our daily living decision making, I realized how much benefit I got out of also lacking it in my life I felt like I didn't really need those videos because my parents didn't teach me "the best way" it was easier for me to see how things could better be handled. I know I didn't know everything perfectly and when I do find my self being the parent it will be a total learning experience I am grateful for the knowledge I have to share with other and to apply to my future.

The importance of fathers in a family (week of March 18-22) I had no idea. I was raised pretty much by my mom she remarried once and divorced and had other relationships in which for a time it could be said I had a father..so I really don't know what that is like, this was as I got older a sad thing for me as I realized how much I felt I had missed out on having a Dad, it's something that I can't never make up for even though my mom was the best mom. For that reason though I have that goal to make sure that I have a secure and loving spouse that I know I can marry for all eternity and be a great father to my children so that we can both help them see what to expect from a spouse the husband or wife. I'm grateful however for the examples I have seen of priesthood holders in the church and how though I didn't have a father attempted to be their to help us with our needs. I could see their loving concern for their families as well as for mine and I knew it was important. Though things were not perfect for me growing up I have been blessed to have other qualities that I know will strengthen my future relationship because of the greater appreciation I have for what I lacked growing up. Fathers are way important in a family and I always had Heavenly Father if anything to help me guide me along the way, what I am today is a result of the choices I made with the challenges I faced, and I'm working to become better.

The week of March 11-15 wow this was such a spiritual learning process, its so amazing to see how as we look at the family and study the importance of decision making or importance of unity or what ever the case may be when we truly seek for what is best for a family you are taken to a spiritual source that leads you up to the beginning even up to before we came to this life, and how we all had a great council so that we could learn and understand the plan of salvation. I know have a better understanding of counseling not only with the different relationships in my family but with my leaders because I know that as we seek for the truth we seek for what is best and individuals in the family will be blessed and one of them is blessed we are all blessed.

In the week of Feb 25- March 1st we talked about sexual intimacy. Their were many questions asked that I had never thought about but were very informative. I really was grateful to learn and appreciate more how sacred this connection with your spouse is and what things you can do in order to keep it that way. It's amazing to think of how their is so much assumption about sexual intimacy that has had much negative affect between couples, and how their is always to make things possible to save their marriage.

In the week of Feb 18-22 We learned about the transition their is in marriage as they begin to have kids. I am so grateful to know so much about what really happens between a couple as their family starts to grow and what things I can have control over now. Most people divorce between the first 2 or so years of a marriage, when their children start to leave home for college or get married, or when their is an empty nest (when children no longer live with parents). Knowing these are some of the most critical moments in a marriage can help us apply things that will keep our marriage satisfied and keep ourselves close to our spouse. It turns out their is really a lot of miscommunication between a couple because having children is not easy for neither of them and they get tired they are being pulled apart in different directions but as a couple we can help each other by being aware of the challenges. Mothers can take every little opportunity for prenatal involvement for the father, make sure to express gratitude and not always correct spouse let them know they are appreciated. Men can try to always be engaged when mom wakes up to watch baby so that he can also be able to bond with the baby :) I love this class! Their are many little things we can do as a couple to have a healthy relationship and to grow together with our children.

So first of all I want to apologize for being so bad at keeping up with these blogs in reality this is one of my favorite classes I have just had so much going on since I came back from my mission and moving up here from South Carolina trying to start from scratch. But any ways like I said this is one of my favorite classes because I think this is the most valuable thing for me right now especially after serving a mission and seeing more how important families are for Heavenly Father and for ourselves. So this blog is for the week of January 14-18. That week I learned about the different trends their is and how these trends shape up different families. We talked about how a lot of people don't want to have many children because they want to make sure they focus on their career or simply don't want to have to many children because it won't be easy. I think of my own family member and friends that are not members of the church and I wish they knew what we know, what our purpose is here on the Earth if more people knew and understood the plan of salvation they would make better decisions when it comes to fertility decisions. I think we that have this knowledge have the responsibility to pray to our Heavenly Father to let us know how many children we should have I know that as we fulfill our purpose as parents and have children that have been foreordained for our family we will see many blessings lying ahead in our lives, many will be blessed and we will be happy because we will be doing the Lords will .

This week we have been learning about how family deal with stress!

I feel like this week was totally dedicated to my family and me, may be others may feel that way also. As I started to think of events in our life that affected our family only a few events came to mind though I knew we had a lot of things that always seemed to go wrong, but as I kept pondering and thinking I realized that we had so much going on since way back then. I started to get emotional because I hadn't really put much thought into them especially after the mission being so busy trying to stay on top of things I remembered how it was that I was able to change my life for the better. It wasn't the worst life, but it wasn't the best. Our family has had many opportunities to progress and move forward but their always seems to be something that just bumps all of us back. When I realized that I could be that bump moving our lives backwards or forward I needed to make a decision and I don't know if with the drama already going on I would've decided to come back to church and go to school etc. I'm grateful for the things that I have witnessed in my family not because they hurt and were hard but because they helped me become what I am becoming everyday. Their are things in family that can pull us apart but if we are aware of what actions to take our life could be so much easier, but that is how life is we don't know what is going to happen and sometimes we are not prepared, but that is how we learn. I look back on how maybe things could've been different had we stayed active or had we just stopped to think what should we do to make things better instead of going through the motions and just doing things. I am grateful to be able to look at my family now with a better understanding of family systems and see what things I can do to help and things we can anticipate together.