Save the World by Saving the Family

I have absolutely LOVED taking this course this semester. I could never even begin to describe all that I have learned.

The overarching theme of this course, at least the one that has resonated with me, is that if we wish to save to world, we must do it by saving the family. I like this quote from Barbara Bush:

“Whatever the era, whatever the times, one thing will never change: Fathers and mothers, if you have children, they must come first. You must read to your children and you must hug your children and you must love your children. Your success as a family, our success as a society, depends not on what happens in the White House but on what happens inside your house.”

My future family, although I have not met its members yet, is among my very most important priorities. I am doing my best to allow the Lord to shape my character to be a wife and mother and woman who is kind, loving, gentle, meek, teachable, and strong in the strength of the Lord.

Divorce

Divorce is something that I have very mixed emotions about. It is because of divorce that both of my wonderful parents were able to escape and recover from the extremely unhealthy and abusive marriages they were in and later meet each other, marry, and have me and my little brother. On the other hand, I feel that divorce is considered too common and easily accessible of an option in today's society. Marriage is supposed to be difficult at times, it is, after all, the Lord's finishing school for His children. Perhaps too many people enter marriage thinking it will be a good way to satisfy their "What's in it for me?" attitude about life. We cannot be successful in our marriages and in our families if we are constantly thinking about how our needs will be met and how we will be fulfilled. H. Wallace Goddard teaches in his amazing book Drawing Heaven Into Your Marriage (incredible book, I recommend it to everyone) that in marriage, we will find the most joy and fulfillment by focusing on filling our spouse's "love cup" as much as possible, and then that love will spill over onto us. 


There are certainly times when a marriage does need to end. In those cases, my heart absolutely goes out to the broken families who are victims to such an unfortunate circumstance. What a blessing it is to know that we have a Savior who's Atonement can heal all wounds, including emotional and spiritual ones, and can heal relationships. What joyous news this is!