The sacrament

I really liked how this week in my class we read about the sacrament during the Easter weekend. I enjoyed learning about the importance of it. I also liked to learn about the symbolism of it.

Its interesting to me that Jesus says that the bread and wine are his body and blood. I think I learned somewhere that when he said that to the apostles they were a little freaked out. Almost like that, it was his actual body and blood. I mean, after seeing everything that the savior could do it wouldn't surprise me that he could turn bread into flash. I think a lot of churches actually believe that when you take the sacrament the bread/wafer actually turns into Christ's body inside the person taking it.

Within the LDS church, we believe that the sacrament is symbolism for the sacrifice that Jesus did for us. The bread only represents his body and the water only represents his blood. You could essentially use anything as long as it represents the savior and his sacrifice.

LDS Family Services

In the textbook and in chapter 15 it talks about LDS Family Services and how it can help unwed parents and adoptive parents. I work with kids at a school and a lot of them are adopted. Many of them feel like they can't connect with their parents. For example, there is a small black boy with white adopted parents. The black boy feels like his parents can't understand his culture and his behavior because they aren't black. The boy makes poor decisions, is rude to his parents, and defies them constantly. the family would I think to be a good candidate for therapy.
90% of parents that adopt are pleased with their adoption and would want to adopt again. Many of the kids that get adopted have a hard time with a relationship with their parents in their teenage years. But it gets better as they get older.

LDS FS also helps with people put their children up for adoption. It is shown that a teenager that gives up their baby for adoption are more likely to graduate high school. It can be a blessing for both the person giving the kid up for adoption and the family looking for a child to adopt.

Boundaries

As a Parent, you have to set limits and boundaries for your children. Otherwise, they will walk all over you. Whenever you give into a boundary to your son or daughter you want to make it known to them that you are letting them break a boundary so that you can build a relationship with them. For example, if I said "dinner time!" And my kids wanted to finish their game really quick before they came upstairs to eat dinner, I would say "ok I will let you finish your game, but I'm letting you do this because I love you and I want to build a relationship with you. you are not getting out of eating dinner as a family."
That way your point is clear about why you are letting them play their game for a bit. They know that you aren't just afraid of the power struggle and conflict of them not wanting to come upstairs to eat dinner.

Communication

Marital Sexuality and intimacy

It is important to be intimate in marriage. Not only to have kids but to express love. A couple should have intimacy often in order to show their love to eachother. They should be willing to talk to eachother about what makes eachother comfortable and uncomfortable. If there is anything that they feel like they are lacking, they should seek hlep from a therapist. A therapist will not judge you and they are open to helping any problem you may have.
Its improtant to not get caught up in jsut being intimate whle married. there are many other aspects of marriage that make it great besides that. Just spending time with eachother is a great way to connect. Watch a movie, read a book together etc.

Equal Partnerships in marriage

I've been reading take back your marriage by Fowler and came across some great stuff about equality that I wanted to share with all of you today.

 Fowler said “the full measure of intimacy in marriage requires husbands and wives to be equal.”. The gospel principle that drives this virtue comes from the scripture first Corinthians 11:11  “Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.” This helps to show that man and woman are equal. They each play a part in the worth of each other.  There was an example of a marriage that was described in the book of a couple that split everything down the middle perfectly equally. Groceries, chores, time with children were exactly equal between each other. It would seem that this example of a marriage would be doing well because they are so just and equal with each other. That was not the case. This marriage was having serious marriage problems. This couple had to learn to trust each other and to relax about having everything equal.

Flowers says “Spouses who have confidence in the fairness of their arrangements generally perceive justice in their relationships in a global way and do not need to struggle over their equality on a daily basis.” This to me means that they don’t have to be so detailed about their equality. Only more as a general sense.

Examples that a marriage could apply this virtue of justice could come in many ways. One way is having separate but equal responsibility. The husband could be the one that provides for the family financially. That is a very big responsibility. The wife could take care of the children which is regarded by many as an equal responsibility but just different. If the couple doesn’t have children, the wife could still take care of the house or make dinner for themselves. That is also a big responsibility. 

Putting it all together

John 7:24 I can judge if I judge righteously.

A lot of people think that they should avoid judging anything like the plague. I have heard many times where I would say something about someone and they would say "don't judge her/him!" but I feel like it is ok to judge things. I think the scriptures just mention that we can't make a final judgment. there was a missionary on the mission where I served who would always yell at people and say "Terrestrial!" if we did anything wrong. It was quite annoying. And in his case, he was condemning people to a final judgment. He should not do that. But if I had a guy that had tattoos, cuts on their arms, obscene language and pictures on their clothes apply to babysit my kid compared to a girl who is a child development major, then I would choose the girl. Most likely she would be the better candidate to babysit kids. But I can't know for sure who would be a better babysitter. The guy with the tattoos might have grown up with 12 other siblings and might be a great babysitter while the girl in the child development class might have homicidal tendencies.  But chances are those would not be the case. I appreciate that our church is not a stickler for judging. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I feel like we are pretty reasonable and logical people and just want to do the best we can. I don't ever hear from people in the church I attend that "I shouldn't judge them." But I also don't judge people out loud very often either. 

I feel like that we are left to judge for ourselves many things. But the final judgment of someone should be left to only God. I feel like the blessings of my church (LDS) giving us the ability to judge had helped me a lot in my life. I can judge what restaurants would be better, what friends I should hang out with, and schools that I should attend. 

The Family FAML 100

Blog post on finding an Eternal Companion.
First off, you have to understand that no one is perfect. That you have to be able to understand that people all come with their own skeletons in the closet. some of those skeletons might be a little too much to handle or they might be ok to handle. It depends on you and what you can deal with. I remember thinking to myself that no one would want to marry me because of some mistakes that I made in my life. I would go on these dates and I would tell the girl the 2nd date about some struggles I had had in my life. Almost every one of those girls never talked to me again. Except for one girl. She was ok with my struggle and decided to marry me. It was the best thing that I ever did. She saw the potential in me and knew that I was a hard worker and that I wasn't going to let my flaws bring me down. Marry potential not perfection.

Gospel Topic: 3 Separate Beings.

This week in my class we read in the new testament. Some thing s that stuck out to me was when John the Baptist was baptizing Jesus. It seems obvious to me that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are 3 separate beings. You have Jesus going into the water, God speaking from above, and a dove flying around during the baptism that represents the holy ghost. I talked to a lot of people during my mission about the Trinity and it was all just so confusing. I like how Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ as 2 separate beings. It made our way of discussing the Godhead much easier. It just seems more logical. There are many scriptures as well that prove that Jesus and God are separate beings. But for some reason, people still believe that they are all one. I know that there are a few scriptures that seem to mention God being one, and some creed made that doctrine official hundreds of years ago. But I just wish people would be able to open their hearts more to the possibility of God being separate.

Related Gospel Topic: Missionary Work

I served my mission in the Canada Toronto Mission. It was probably one of the hardest things that I have ever done. I remember thinking to myself "there has got to be a better way to spread the gospel instead of knocking on doors all day." Because most of the converts you get from knocking on doors are also on welfare. That's what it seems at least in my experience. I know that we are some of the few churches to go out and spread the message of Jesus Christ and the only church to spread the message of the restored gospel. So it makes what we do very important for everyone to come and hear the message. There are a few things that are being done right now to hasten the work like facebook, and social media. But I wish that there was more. I wonder what missionary work will be like in 30 years. Will we keep knocking on doors? Will all missions be paid for by tithing money? Will we not do missionary work the traditional way and just do missionary work from our computers? there is a lot of room for more possibilities on how to hasten the work. I'm curious what the church has in store for the next 30 years.