My First Few Weeks!

These first few weeks of class have been fascinating! It has really opened my eyes to a lot of things. First off, anyone reading this please know that the things I share are not intended to offend or criticize. These are simply my thoughts and the things I am learning in my Family Relations class.

So, we watched some really interesting videos called New Economic Reality:Demographic Winter. They are kind of long but if you are interested just follow the link. Basically what these videos were talking about was that the birth rates worldwide are declining. They talked about the economic consequences of the declining birth rate. In essence, there will soon not be enough young people to take over for those who are retiring. It was a fascinating thing to watch. I wont go into all the details because there was a lot of information in the two videos, but if you are curious about the statistics and such feel free to watch the video.

Here are some of the things that stood out to me as we did the readings and talked in class.  We spoke of how real love is a commitment to another’s physical and spiritual well being. We read that children should be welcomed and treasured. There was a lot of discussion about people choosing not to have children because they view them as an inconvenience. It is really sad for me to think of all the people who miss out on the wonderful blessing of having children because they are more interested in their career or their own personal goals. President Brigham Young had this to say about having children:

"There are multitudes of pure and holy spirits waiting to take tabernacles, now what is our duty?—To prepare tabernacles for them; to take a course that will not tend to drive those spirits into the families of the wicked, where they will be trained in wickedness, debauchery, and every species of crime. It is the duty of every righteous man and woman to prepare tabernacles for all the spirits they can.”President Brigham Young. That pretty much sums it up for me!

We talked a lot about how the family is being attacked in every way. That having a traditional family is no longer the norm, in fact it is often looked down on as being “old fashioned”. We discussed how having conflict doesn’t have to mean we are IN conflict. That conflict and fighting are different. Conflict in inherent, but that doesn’t mean we always have to fight. In regards to marriage it isn’t “natural” for two people to become “one”, but we are fighting the natural man. We are trying to become like God.

The last thing I want to discuss was a very interesting thing for me. We went over case studies and the 2005 APA brief (APA= American Psychological Association) that was very influential in the Supreme Court ruling to redefine marriage. The judge that was the swing vote relied heavily on this brief for his decision. What we talked about was the fact that the APA brief was really not very reliable, yet was regarded as fact. It was very interesting to see that this judge did not really understand the “evidence” that he was basing his decision on. This was a good lesson of how we need to be careful when we look at case studies and information. Here is a link if you are interested: The Public Discourse. If anyone is interested I can send you a pdf of someone going over the brief, that helps you understand it more.

In conclusion I love learning about the family, and about what is happening in the world. More importantly I love being more educated so I can more properly fight for and defend the family!

I am sorry if this is scattered and confusing! I am learning so much and I am still figuring out how to write it in a concise, clear manner.

(I do not own the photos, I found them online.)