Parenthood is something I have absolutely zero experience with. Actually, that's a lie. I did babysit my younger siblings quite a bit and I do know how to change a diaper. So I guess I'm pretty solid. However, parenting in the church has such a deeper meaning than just changing diapers or teaching your child the ABCs. Parents have the key responsibility to raise their children in the gospel and teach them gospel principles. People who aren't members of our church often think that LDS parents too strict, or too uptight. I've even heard a nonmember call an LDS mom "crazy". Like what? Okay... No. I mean I'm sure there are some crazy moms out there, but being LDS is not what makes someone crazy. SO, what does it mean exactly to raise our children in the church?
The 6th paragraph of the Proclamation says, 
"Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. "Children are an heritage of the Lord" (Psalms 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God and to be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives-mothers and fathers-will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations."

And there ya have it. I love that paragraph because it is literally a guide to parenthood in our church. It tells parents what is expected of them, and my favorite part is towards the end where it explains that parents WILL be held accountable before God if they don't raise their children in the light of the gospel. Kids learn everything from their parents. Their parents are literally their teachers of life. If our children aren't learning the necessities of this gospel and it's teachings, we have somehow failed as parents. I'm talking as if I am a parent, but I'm not. I will be someday though and am fully ready to take on this responsibility. ;) 

It makes sense as to why the world might view LDS moms as strict or "crazy", but in reality their purpose is to provide the best life possible for their children. Letting children rome free without any life lessons doesn't do them any good, because they learn nothing from it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge advocate for "You live and you learn", but children need to be guided on how to do that. They need to be taught the difference between right and wrong, and of course will be given their agency to make those decisions. 

I know for me, personally, I can't imagine my life any other way. I can't imagine what I would be like if I didn't have a mom that raised me in the gospel. I never saw my life as "unfair" or "restricted" at all. My mom and stepdad did an amazing job at raising us kids and giving us all the tools we need to make the right decisions. From that I hope to imply the same principles to my future children and hopefully do as well as my parents did. My parents taught us to serve, love one another, pray, be kind, be obedient, have respect, and many more lessons that I know have shaped me into the person I am today. 

Here's a picture of me and my momma back in the day(: 

As well as a picture of my mom, stepdad, older brother, and I. I think it was a little bit before they got married... maybe?

In my Book of Mormon class this week, we read Helaman 10-16. Throughout those chapters, it talks about Nephi and how people had such a hard time following him and heeding unto the words of their prophet. 

It really opens my eyes to how similar our world is today, and how often society struggles to trust in our prophet. People are under a strong impression that following the prophet and living the gospel will take away their freedom. They don't want to have to obey anyone. They think the church will limit what they can and can't do. People in today's world also struggle with having the faith that the prophets and apostles really are called of God.

I am here to tell you - our prophets are called of God. They are God's servants and messengers. They are God's voice on this earth. Whatever God needs us to hear, He tells us through prophets and apostles that teach and guide us. 

There is so much proof and evidence out there about the many blessings of prophets. The website lds.org is such an amazing tool to learn about these servants of God. As I was looking for a video or article to share about prophets, there were way too many to choose from. But I decided to share a talk from President Gordon B. Hinckley clear back from 1973, before he was even called as the prophet. I love President Hinckley and his words are just as powerful back then as they were when he served as our beloved prophet. 

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I know that prophets truly are inspired leaders of our church. They teach, guide, comfort, and motivate me to be the best that I can possible be. They are there to help us, and to deliver God's messages to us. I am grateful for them and all they do for this gospel. I hope that the rest of the world will soon be able to understand the importance of God's servants, and come unto Him.

In my last post I introduced the proclamation. Right now I'm learning about the third paragraph and just wanted to share some thoughts with everyone on it. It reads, 
"In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize his or her divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally."

This section of the proclamation is very near and dear to my heart. When I was two years old, my mom and dad got divorced. They didn't have a temple marriage, so I was never sealed to them to begin with. My married married my step-dad about a year after the divorce in the Salt Lake City temple, and have since had four children together. Growing up, I've always known that my four younger siblings were sealed to my mom and stepdad and I've been extremely jealous of that. My stepdad, Kevin, has definitely been my father figure for as long as I've known him and I wanted nothing more than to be sealed to him and my mom forever. But, of course, my biological dad wouldn't allow it. It's always been really hard on me to think about being alone after this life. What would happen to me? Who would I be with? Was there a place in heaven for all of the people who are alone with no eternal family? Ha I had no idea! But it scared me! 

After getting married, I knew that I would have my husband and my future children with me through this life and the next, but for some reason there was still a hole in my heart knowing that I wouldn't be sealed to my parents or siblings. 

So, after talking to my parents and knowing that they had the same feelings I did, we have been in the process of making plans for this Spring to seal me to the rest of my family. I have never had such a strong feeling of gratitude before in my life. To some people it might sound silly because they don't share the same beliefs, but I do know that this gospel is true, and that there truly is a life after this. I know that our families will never have to be apart if we choose to live worthy and righteous of God's eternal plan for us. After going my whole life with this huge emptiness in my heart, I can't even imagine what it would be like to spend the rest of my life like that. It's miserable, and it's scary! It is truly the scariest thing I think I've ever felt, not having my family with me after we die. It actually kinda makes me sick to my stomach! haha. 

I am incredibly grateful and humbled by the opportunity I will soon have to be apart of my eternal family, and make that covenant with my Heavenly Father. 

Learning about the proclamation has given me that much more proof that this is what God has had in store for me all along. :) 

In the church, we have an incredible document called The Family: A Proclamation to the World. The first paragraph in this document says, 

"We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children."

This first paragraph sets the whole mood of the proclamation. It gives us our outline of what marriage should be: One man, and one woman. The world today is struggling so bad with this concept. Gay marriage is now legal, and our church has gotten A LOT of flack for not supporting it. 
Something that a lot of people ask us Mormons is "Why don't you guys support gays and lesbians? Doesn't God love everyone? Shouldn't we NOT judge others?" The answer is yes.. God loves all of His children, and yes.. we are taught to not judge others. But these two things have absolutely NOTHING to do with our belief in keeping marriage between a man and woman. 

To expand on this, I am going to quote the second paragraph of the proclamation, 
"All human beings-male and female-are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."

So, in short, God has made marriage between a man and a woman because we are made into these genders for a certain reason! If we were all meant to be the same and love someone the same as us, why would He create two different genders? Why not just create all males? Or all females?

Woman was created for the purpose of baring and nurturing her children, and taking care of the home. She was created to be her husband's support system, helping hand, and other half. Men are created to preside and provide for his family. He makes sure the needs of his wife and children are met, there's a roof over their heads, and they have food on the table. He was made to be his wives other half. Men don't bare children, and women don't hold the priesthood. So yes, both are necessary in a home.

In Moses we are taught how women were created, literally from the rib of Adam. Chapter 3 of Moses states..
21 And I, the Lord God, caused a deep sleep to fall upon
Adam; and he slept, and I took one of his ribs and closed
up the flesh in the stead thereof;
22 And the rib which I, the Lord God, had taken from
man, made I a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said: This I know now is bone of my
bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his
mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; andthey shall be
one flesh.

It truly is such a simple commandment and concept that our world has twisted into such a complicated thing. Marriage, in the eyes of God, should be between a man and a woman. 


Here is a conference talk from Elder D. Todd Christofferson to help prove my point. :) Enjoy!

This week in my Book of Mormon class, we've  been studying the second half of Alma. One of the chapters that really stuck out to me was chapter 33. In this chapter, Alma talks about Zenos's prayer. In this prayer that Zenos offered, he gave several examples of where God has heard his prayers and answered them. I couldn't pick just one example that I liked, so I just inserted the whole prayer below. :)

4 For he said: Thou art merciful, O God, for thou hast heard my prayer, even when I was in the wilderness; yea, thou wast merciful when I prayed concerning those who were mine enemies, and thou didst turn them to me.
 5 Yea, O God, and thou wast merciful unto me when I did cry unto thee in my field; when I did cry unto thee in my prayer, and thou didst hear me.
 6 And again, O God, when I did turn to my house thou didst hear me in my prayer.
 7 And when I did turn unto my closet, O Lord, and prayed unto thee, thou didst hear me.
 8 Yea, thou art merciful unto thy children when they cry unto thee, to be heard of thee and not of men, and thouwilt hear them.
 9 Yea, O God, thou hast been merciful unto me, and heard my cries in the midst of thy congregations.
 10 Yea, and thou hast also heard me when I have beencast out and have been despised by mine enemies; yea, thou didst hear my cries, and wast angry with mine enemies, and thou didst visit them in thine anger with speedy destruction.
 11 And thou didst hear me because of mine afflictions and my sincerity; and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been thus merciful unto me, therefore I will cry unto thee in all mine afflictions, for in thee is my joy; for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, because of thy Son.

Zenos's prayer and testimony of prayer really helped me to strengthen my own testimony. God is with us, no matter where we are. We are taught, as Latter-Day Saints, to prayer unto Him anytime, anywhere. I feel like a lot of us don't take this to heart and we think that we have to be in a certain places or only at certain times. But that's not the case at all. Zenos has proven to us through the words of the scriptures that it doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing. God is always going to there for us if we are reaching out to Him and desiring that our words be heard. 

It's an amazing thing to have scriptures filled with all of these amazing examples. I am forever grateful and blessed to have the words of God literally at my fingertips, and that I am able to feast upon those words to give me insights and knowledge. 

I love the topic of divorce and step families. I know it sounds strange to hear that, but I do. This is a topic that I have personally experienced throughout 18 years of my life. My mom divorced when I was two years old and married my stepdad when I was about three years old. I understand that many situations that include stepparents or stepsiblings can be difficult to handle. But fortunately for me, it has been the biggest blessing in my life.

My family teacher had us watch a video in preparation to this lesson that talked about stepparents and the unrealistic verses the realistic expectation that they should have when they come into a family that technically isn’t their own. One of the examples of UNrealistic expectations was a stepparent trying to suddenly disciplining the children as if they were his or her children. This is very unrealistic because those kids have lived their whole lives without this person and have their own routine. For a stepparent to just jump in and start controlling them can become very frustrating for the kids because this guy or girl is still a stranger to them. The video mentioned that it is very important for stepparents to develop an actual relationship with the children first. They need to get to know them, their interests, their personalities, and their needs. After the stepparents has developed a loving relationship with the kids, then it would be safer for him or her to start laying down some rules around the house.

I am so grateful that my stepdad, Kevin, did this. He was VERY patient with my older brother and I, and made sure that he wasn’t trying to take over my dad’s role in our lives. He sat back and let us come to him, rather than just jumping in our lives and shoving all of his rules and parenting styles in our faces. Bless his heart, I’m sure there were times where he regretted even joining the family because my brother and I were so hard to deal with. My biological dad hated the idea of having another man in the house, raising us. He had me “brainwashed”, I guess you could say, into thinking that Kevin was never going to be a dad to me and that if I ever considered Kevin as my father figure, my dad would disown me. This stuck with me for quite a few years until I realized, at about age 12, that Kevin was the true dad in my life. He raised me, taught me how to ride a bike, went to my parent-teacher conferences, provided for me, and supported me in EVERYTHING I did. From gymnastics, to piano, to dance, to Jr. Miss, to wanting to become a nurse. He never once has made me feel like I wasn’t good enough for something. To me, that’s what a dad really is.

My parents’ divorce has definitely been the biggest blessing in my life, because without it I would not have the amazing stepdad that I do. There has been several challenges that have happened with my biological dad because of it, but in the end it is so worth it to have a man in the home that can take us to church, teach us the gospel, and give us the power of priesthood whenever we need it.

Below is a video of one of my favorite songs called “He Didn’t Have To Be”. It talks about a man to takes the place of a little boy’s father. You’ve gotta listen to the lyrics! They describe everything perfectly! (Other than the fact that I’m a girl, not a boy. Just pretend I’m the boy in the video) :) 

If you’ve never read it, I HIGHLY recommend you read this article called We Believe in the Ministering of Angels”. http://ldsmag.com/article-1-11837/

It is an article written by the church and really helps us to appreciate the angels in our lives that have passed on. It talks a lot about how parents aren’t always perfect and there are times were we might feel like failures because our child has gone astray. But we have angels watching over us and teaching us about the binding temple ordinances that have been made. It has a really good story about a mother and her son that was very verbally abusive to her and how her ancestors were able to help her through it. Definitely a Must-Read.

I am not a parent yet, but I know that it is not an easy task. I have five younger siblings, which means that I have done a little bit of babysitting in my lifetime. I use to always whine and complain when my parents made me babysit my siblings. I would get so frustrated and angry because my friends were always out doing something and I would be stuck at home, watching my five siblings that never even did what I told them to anyway. I had a bad attitude about it, but now looking back I am extremely grateful that I was able to babysit them. It taught me a lot about how kids work and how to handle them. It taught me how to change a diaper, make a bottle, what foods were okay for babies that didn’t have teeth and what foods they couldn’t eat yet. It taught me how to talk to young kids and I learned new ways to making cleaning “fun” for them.

No one expects you to be a perfect parent, and I think moms and dads often feel like they are never good enough for their children or don’t raise them the right way. If you are doing your best and teaching your kids all that you can, don’t stress. You’re doing a good job. 

In today's world, I feel like there are less and less moms that are staying home to take care of their children. I'm not saying a working mom is bad at all. But there are some things that day cares and babysitters can't do that only moms can. It is important for woman to make sure their families are top priority and are always being taken care of before a job or anything else comes into play. 

My mom had to work when I was little because her and my dad divorced and she was a single mom. I remember going to a daycare while my mom went to work and I was never a huge fan of it. Like any other child, I was always so excited to see my mom when she would pick me up from daycare. And I knew my mom would've much rather been at home taking care of my brother and I. Thankfully she was able to marry my step dad soon after that and she was able to stay home with us again. I really did feel like there was such a big difference in the entire family structure when my mom was at home with us instead of at work. There was less stress on her and I knew that if I got sick at school, my mom was always right there ready to pick me up, bring me home, and baby me until I felt better. She was physically there for us, and I think that made all of the difference. She was still an amazing mom when she had to work, but having her around more often made it a much better home.

We read an article about stay-at-home moms that was really interesting to me. I will post the link below. It talked about how the world views stay-at-home moms as “switching their minds for a mop”. People say mom’s that don’t go out and work become lazy and unintelligent. But in this article it actually says that those who stay at home are just as smart, if not smarter, than those that work. I definitely recommend reading the article! It’s not very long and will definitely give you some good insights on being a stay-at-home mom!
http://www.dennisprager.com/does-a-full-time-homemaker-swap-her-mind-for-a-mop/ 

We hear all the time that communication is the key to a happy marriage. But how many of us actually take that advice into consideration? So many marriages end in divorce because of simple misunderstandings or miscommunications that easily could’ve been avoided.

In class we learned one way of communicated to each other during an argument. Instead of immediately getting mad and yelling at the person, we need to use the I-statements. I- statements are about telling your spouse your feelings about the situation. For example “I feel frustrated when you sit on the couch all day because I have to do all of the chores and cleaning by myself. It would be really nice if you could pause the football game once in a while just to help me take out the trash or do the dishes”. Using the I-statements really helps to convey your feelings to your spouse rather than just point fingers and blame towards them.

It is extremely important for couples to communicate and make sure that they are considering each other’s feelings and ideas. We watched a short video about a couple that was having problems with money and after they learned to simply communicate with each other, they found that their money problems disappeared. If you have 10 minutes, I would definitely recommend watching the video and I will post the link below.

http://stream.byui.edu/VideoPlayer/BYUIplayer.html?StartCue=12&EndCue=662&VideoName=CurrDev_01&Video

 I don't know a single person on this earth that likes stress. No one likes the feeling of being stressed, overwhelmed, or angry. So why do we stress ourselves out if there’s nothing enjoyable about it? Stress comes in all different kinds and all different levels. Divorce, abuse, loss of a job, financial instability, moving, death of a loved one; all of these can cause tremendous stress, not only on just one person, but on an entire family. There are also things in the family such as fighting siblings, arguing parents, disagreements, and sometimes resentment. The list goes on and on. Everyone experiences the horrid “S” word.

But how in the world can we get rid of it? Stress destroys families. Every day there is someone out there whose marriage is on the line because of stress and arguments and the tension it causes in the home. It’s gotta be eliminated, but how? Most of the solutions we talked about in my family class involved seeing your own self-worth, and the worth of your family. For example, if a woman is in an abusive relationship, she probably feels worthless and incapable of being in control. If she realizes that she is of great worth and doesn’t deserve the way she is being treated, it makes it much easier for her to handle the situation whether that involves leaving the situation or finding help.

Of course it is always better to look at the positive side of things. Not all stressful situations involve abuse, of course. But we simply look at the bright side and work on making things better, they will get better. Stress takes a huge toll on families everywhere. It’s a poison. Learn, as a family, how to cope with the stresses that arise in the home and don’t let the little things destroy you.