Marriage and Family Advocacy

I have couples in my life that I look up to because of their sweet relationships with one another. Think about it, aren’t there those people in your lives who you just admire and long to have a relationship such as there? I can tell you one thing. They most likely had a bond before they got married. They were each others friends, and now they are the best of friends continuiong to overcome the natural man such as the scripture in Mosiah 3:19 mentions. “For he natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit , and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child  In order to maintain those healthy relationships with out spouses, and need to treat them as our best friend and someone we desire to have by our side. Dr. John Gottman, in his book  “The Seven Principles for Making Marriage ...

The principle of nurturing fondness and admiration is important. It may seem like a trait that would be best fit for a mother, but I believe it is a trait that every human being on earth should have. To care for and protect those around us who are strangers, and those who are near and dear to us. I did an assignment this week that involved nurturing and caring for someone in my life. I chose my roommate, and I found that it was harder than I thought to go out of my way to do things to show that I cared for her. In the end, I’ve noticed that we’ve been better able to understand each other when we communicate, and it’s about building each other up rather than competing, and silently hoping that the other person doesn’t reach their full potential. In relating this principle to a marriage relationship, Dr. H. Wallace Goddard shared in his book, “Drawing Heaven into Your Marriage,” the following: “Each of us is created in a different ‘factory’ or family. Two...

Although I’m not yet married, it was interesting for me to think about what It means to have a covenant marriage. There is a difference between a contract and a covenant, and Bruce C. Hafen, a former President at BYU Idaho goes into detail about what that means. He quotes, “ Three summers ago, I watched a new bride and groom, Tracy and Tom, emerge from a sacred temple. They laughed and held hands as family and friends gathered to take pictures. I saw happiness and promise in their faces as they greeted their reception guests, who celebrated publicly the creation of a new family. I wondered that night how long it would be until these two faced the opposition that tests every marriage. Only then would they discover whether their marriage was based on a  contract  or a  covenant. Another bride sighed blissfully on her wedding day, “Mom, I’m at the end of all my troubles!” “Yes,” replied her mother, “but at which end?” When troubles come, the parties to a...