I LOVE the topic for this week. Drum roll please…… IT’S COMMUNICATION! Communication is one of the most crucial factors in our interactions and relationships with others and yet many of us have no idea what makes good communication or how the quality in ours may be lacking. All of our communication is sent through different media, ways in which the message is transmitted. This can include words, the tone that is used, nonverbal signals (body language, eye contact, etc.), texting, face-timing, social media, email, or good old-fashioned mail. In class we discussed what factors in communication held the most weight. This surprised me and the breakdown is as follows: Words—14% Tone—35% Non-verbals—51% This really surprised me! The words we say have very little to do with what message we are sending. It is the way in which we say it and the way our body language, posture, eye contact, etc. relay what we are saying that have the most impact. This was very
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Hey everyone! This week’s topic is about Family Crises and Coping. Everyone in their lifetime will experience multiple crises within a family. These can range from diagnosis of a serious illness, loss of a child, loss of a parent, loss of a job, house fires, divorce, or cheating. Crises come far and wide to all and they can be life-shaking and completely alter your family situations. Stress can be both good and bad. There are many different types of stressors and in a crisis, there are bound to be many that combined to form this event. Stressors put a strain on relationships and families. Under stress, we tend to revert to what is familiar (either ways our parents handled stress or ways we learned to handle it). There are a couple of things that will determine the way we handle the stressors. 1. The way we define it and 2. How we cope with it. Whatever you do in the face of a crisis is a coping pattern. There are many different types of coping patterns. So
Hey everyone! This week’s subject is sexual intimacy. This is a topic that makes many people uncomfortable, but it is such an important part of marriage that isn’t discussed enough. In the culture of our church, we often frame sexual intimacy to be an inherently bad thing and we don’t discuss it and make it a comfortable subject like we should. This is causing an array of issues because once people do get married and are allowed to have those relations with one another, they feel that it is wrong and dirty instead of an opportunity to grow closer to each other and closer to God. In both my family relations class and in the preparation for marriage class that I took last fall, they both recommended reading And They Were Not Ashamed and Knowing Her Intimately: 12 Keys for Creating a Sextraordinary Marriage by Laura M. Brotherson before getting married. She is a LDS author and helps bring the topic of sexual intimacy to life in a tasteful yet still very informational
Hey everyone! This week we are discussing engagement! I wanted to start with a quote from President Russell M. Nelson: "Meanwhile, mortal misunderstandings can make mischief in marriage. In fact, each marriage starts with two built-in handicaps. It involves two imperfect people. Happiness can come to them only through their earnest effort. Just as harmony comes from an orchestra only when its members make a concentrated effort, so harmony in marriage also requires a concerted effort. That effort will succeed in each partner will minimize personal demands and maximize actions of loving selflessness." What an exciting time! You found someone and you have exclusively dated for long enough that you feel like you know them (this shouldn’t be any less than three months at the very least). You have decided that you want to spend your life with this person and the next step is engagement. Engagement is a contract/agreement that you will be married. Wha
I am sooo excited about the topic this week! The topic is, (drum roll please), Preparing for marriage!!!! This information really rang true to me because this is the stage that I am currently in. Let’s get right to it. Dating is an important aspect of eventually finding someone that you will share your life with. Assortive Dating is the idea that you date multiple people, no strings attached, just going out and having a good time and meeting new people. This is an important stage that many people skip. My mom likes to call it shopping for ice cream flavors. Everyone is different and you may think you like mint chocolate chip until you try graham canyon. This gives you an idea of what you need in a relationship and things that you could do without. In a devotional given by Dallin H. Oaks entitled “Dating vs. Hanging Out” he explains the 3 p’s of dating: “A “date” must pass the test of three p’s: Date must have: 1. Planned ahead