Marriage—Ups, Downs, and All-Arounds

"In His grand design, when God first created man, He created duality of the sexes. The ennobling expression of that duality is found in marriage. One individual is complementary to the other. As Paul stated, 'Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord' (1 Corinthians 11:11). There is no other arrangement that meets the divine purposes of the Almighty. Man and woman are His creations. Their duality is His design. Their complementary relationships and functions are fundamental to His purposes. One is incomplete without the other." - President Gordon B. Hinckley This week we are talking about gender roles in the family.   As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we know from The Family: A Proclamation to the World, that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God.   We know that, “Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.”   Thi

Hello everyone!   I want to start this post off with a quote: Today we are talking about family traditions!   Each family has its own unique culture and unique traditions.   Traditions are defined as “a long-established custom or belief that has been passed on from one generation to another.”   There can be both good and bad traditions within a family. Some examples of traditions could include family dinners, reading scriptures together, singing the children songs before bed, family prayer, Sunday walks, kissing the children goodnight, board games, family home evening, daddy/daughter dates, mother/son dates, yard work on Saturdays, Christmas Eve dinners with extended family, fireworks on the 4 th of July.   In the Handbook for Families published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it states: Family traditions are like spiritual and emotional cement in the foundation of a happy home. They create fond memories, and these memories bond us together as

Why do we stay in relationships? What makes us crazy enough to put small or even big things on the line?   Something we discussed in my class this week is called Social Exchange Theory.   Social Exchange Theory basically means that we will only stay in a relationship as long as our “costs” are lower than our “rewards”.   Now let me explain this a little bit.   Costs would be what we invest into a given relationship.   For example: time, money, energy, etc. and our rewards would be what we receive in return for our costs in a given relationship.   For example, gratification, money, security, safety, etc. This can be applied to any relationship whether it be family, friends, coworkers, your boss, siblings, or romantic relationships.   If our costs outweigh our rewards, we won’t likely stay in that particular relationship very long.   Now why would this be?   Because it is exhausting!!! When you put more in than what you receive, there are very few benefits to that relationship. Whe

Let’s get right to it.   Having children is a topic we hear a lot about.   As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we understand that God has commanded all of His children to “multiply, and replenish the earth,” (Genesis 1:28).   But many of us have heard different opinions and approaches on this subject.   In 1968 a man named Paul R. Ehrlich published a book entitled The Population Bomb which changed the scene on this topic forever.   In this book, Ehrlich discussed how the population was doubling and by the 1970s/1980s there would be widespread famine because the resources available would not be enough to sustain the amount of people.   We have seen that those are inaccurate predictions because we have doubled the population from then until now and we still have enough resources to support the people.   Science advances have helped us reap more crops per acre of land than ever before.   The opinions contained in this book had a very large impact on th