hey there

I really enjoyed having Sister Williams come to class on Wednesday. I thought it was so nice of her to be willing to share her story with us. I felt like it gave me a much better understanding of what it would be like to get remaried and how hard it could be to go out and date again after having chldren. I was also very impressed that Brother Williams was able to take on such a huge responsibility with not only providing for a wife at 21 but also for two little boys. I am almost 21 myslef and I can't imagine having to take care of two children already and especially fresh off a mission. It was just an incredible story! My faveorite part of the class was when Brother Williams shared the song by Brad Paisley that his son had dedicated to him. I just started crying becasuse it was such a beautiful song and it made me want to start a family so bad. I went home that night and my roommate and I watched that music video again and she started crying too. Families really are incredible and I am so grateful for the opportunity I will have one day to be a wife and mother.

Brother Williams- Thank you so much for sharing your story and for the great semester! You are a wonderful teacher and I have really enjoyed your class. I would also like to thank you for the times you felt inspired to share some of your personal experiences. I have been touched deeply by them.

Today in class we talked about treating our children with respect. We reflected on the video that first showed a Mother treating her daughter disrespectfuly and then they reversed the situation so the Mother was sitting on the couch and the daughter came in and said the same things the Mother had said in the first situation. I thought this was very eye opening because when I first saw the Mother treating her daughter disrespectfuly it wasn't that big of a deal, but when the daughter talked to her Mom that way it sounded so rude. It just made me think that when I am a parent I need to remember that my children and people to and they deserve my respect more than anyone because they are my family. We are more prone to say something rude to a family member than we are to a stranger because we know our family will put up with it and love us anways. This is not the right attitude to have we need to be respectful to all people especially our family members. Before I say something hurtful to a family member I am going to ask myself if I would say this to a stranger or friend.

On Monday we talked about family finances. It was pointed out that we are learning to live the law of consecration in our marriages and in our families. That really stuck out to me. It is true that when we get married all that we own goes from being mine to being ours. This was just another testimony builder to me of how much the family is ordained of God. We can learn so many eternal principles through creating our own families.

On Wednesday we talked about the talk Counseling with your Councils and how that could be applied to families. We should be discussing issues together as a family council. First we reviewed how the first presidency and the 12 apostles come to decisions in their council meetings held ever Thursday in the temple. I found that to be very enlightening and a good template for us to follow in our own homes. They start their meeting by showing love towards each other then have a prayer. After they have the prayer they discuss the issue until they all agree that they have come to understand God's will on the matter than they have a closing prayer and end with a dessert. The dessert is a bonding experience which unifies them again. One student recognized that this routine is a chiasm. I think that we should model our family discussions after this example. Before we ever bring up an issue we should express our love and concern for our family members than we should pray that the spirit will be with us and that we will be able to know God's will. Then we come to a consensuses not a compromise. If we truly understand God's will then neither of us should be giving up anything and we should both be happy with the final decision. We should pray and make sure that we have made the right decision and then we should unify ourselves again so that we end on a good note with everyone feeling right about the outcome.

This week we discussed family crisis and how they can either draw a family closer together or distance a family. We were asked to identify 10 family crisis and reflect on how our family members reacted and the impact the events had on the family. I found this to be a very interesting assignment. I noticed that even though the crisis were really hard at the time and I wished then that they had never happened I can now look back on many of these experiences and be grateful for the lessons I learned from them. It just shows that God really does give us trials to help us grow. Many times we believe these trials only effect us individually, but from making this list I have come to see they not only help us grow as a person but grow together as a family. During times of trial we not only learn to rely on God but we also learn to lean on our family members for support and strength. That just shows how much God loves us, he gave us a support systems here on earth, the family and I am so very grateful for them!

This week we have been talking about intimacy in marriage. My roommate is also taking a marriage prep class at this time and they have been talking about pornography. We have talked together about some of the things we are learning and it has just made me wonder what I can do if anything to prevent my husband from getting into that kind of stuff. I want to know what I can do to protect my marriage. Some of the ideas I came up with are praying with my husband daily, going to the temple together weekly, dating weekly, continuing to be affectionate all throughout our marriage, turning to him emotionaly and no one else, serving and loving him, putting the computer out where everyone can see it, not having cable TV, checking up on him to see if there is ever that temptaion, and just being there for him. I know that there are lots of good people who have problems with pornography or affairs in their marriages but I really don't want that to happen to me and I am willing to do all that I can to prevent that.