Parenting/Child Family Advocacy Classes

Today I start a new journaling section for my Parenting 220 class and Child and Family Advocacy 460 class.  I will be posting my thoughts on questions asked weekly.

It is important for us to understand that we are agent's, blessed with agency, who can act rather than be acted upon as learners so that we move forward with our learning, and not sit waiting in the process.  We can choose what and how we learn, and be excited about learning instead of just memorizing.
As I choose to learn, I will be better able to interact with the world around me.  It will not just be "things happening to me" but will be me influencing the world around me.
We need to learn to keep our minds active and prepare ourselves to be a positive influence in the world around us.  It will also help prepare us to become God's and Goddesses.  We cannot obtain celestial glory, assigned to create world's, without knowledge and understanding.
We need to learn by seeking and applying it in our daily lives.
At BYU-Idaho, I will be able to seek some of this learning and use it in my daily life, not just pass a class.
In Elder Bednar's talk, Learning to Love Learning, he said we must seek all learning in faith and that not all learning is equal.  We should seek the best learning and apply gospel truths in our lives if we are to become like our Father in Heaven.

As typical college students, we can seek for forgiveness on wrong answers, missed assignments, and failed tests.  This shows we were not concerned with the learning, but more about the grade.  If we want to learn, we put for the effort to understand, which will help us with our grades.

In learning we must have an understanding. In the Private Universe video, we see that even top-notch students didn't understand and learn, or even care, about certain subjects.

While watching the presentation of, "In Memory of Our God, Religion, Freedom, Peace, Wives and Children" I took the following points. 
What can I be doing more to strengthen my family? 
Satan LEADS us away, not something abrupt.
Philosophies of men are mingling with scriptures and we need to be diligent in keeping commandments.

In-Law Relations

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. —Genesis 2:24

In twenty-eight years of marriage, my husband and I have only lived an hour from my parents for the first three years, since then we have lived this scripture to its fullest.  We have spent many years far from family, only to rely on and grow together as a couple, and then as a family.  Have we missed out on many of the family activities that our siblings and parents have enjoyed together?  Yes, but we have also created many fond memories of our own, while strengthening our family unit.  This isn’t to say that we have left our own families behind and forgotten the ties we have with them.  We try to stay in touch as much as possible, which is now easier than it used to be before cell phones and internet, we travel to visit as often as we can and we continue to vacation with, and send our boys to stay for extended amounts of time.  We hold those ties dear, and encourage our boys to stay close to cousins, aunt and uncles, and grandparents in all that they do.  I feel that this is VERY important.  Our back yard has yet to have the landscaping finished because I feel it is more important to use our funds to visit family often.  And I am sure that the memories my boys have from that will far out way their memories of a waterfall in the backyard.  Elder Marvin J. Ashton, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles give us his definition of this scripture as follows, “Certainly a now-married man should cleave unto his wife in faithfulness, protection, comfort, and total support, but in leaving father, mother, and other family members, it was never intended that they now be ignored, abandoned, shunned, or deserted. They are still family, a great source of strength …. Wise parents, whose children have left to start their own families, realize their family role still continues, not in a realm of domination, control, regulation, supervision, or imposition, but in love, concern, and encouragement.” (1974, January) He took him by the hand, Ensign, 4(1), 101.

            That being said, I know that our close ties to the family we leave as we are married should not be placed in front of the new family unit we create with a spouse.  I am a new mother-in-law to two beautiful girls.  I pray every day that I will be able to develop and build lasting relationships with my new girls, as well as stay close to my boys.  Although this is something that is extremely important to me, I am more prayerful that my sons and their wives will cling to one another and cleave, or as the dictionary defines it, “to remain attached, devoted, or faithful to,” and “to remain steadfast” to one another before their childhood families.  James M. Harper and Susanne Frost Olsen share many ways we can create healthy family ties when our children leave our home.  Here is a list of the points they make in, Helping and healing our families: Principles and practices inspired by “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” (pp. 327-334)

-Newly Married Couple should leave their parent and cleave unto their spouses

-Helping newly married couple create a marital identity

-Accepting Differences

-Including new spouse in the extended family 

 By building a strong family unit with our spouse, and allowing our children to create a strong family unit with their spouse, we can build an eternal family that will be loving and caring and bonded throughout time and eternity.