Marriage and the Family

Finances and Family I love the idea of  having rules about money management within a family. I believe that having clear rules and expectations on how to save, handle, and spend money when kids/teens are still living in the home, they will be able to have more financial success after they leave the home because they will have the proper skills and knowledge.  When I was growing up, my parents never talked to me about money. I never knew how much money my parents made, how much they spent on needs or wants. I was also never taught to save money. I worked while I was in high school, but I never saved the money I made. I wasn't taught why this is important. I thought that once I graduated high school, things would just fall into place financially. I would somehow have the means to pay for housing, school, a car and gas, and all other needs and wants. I didn't realize how off-base I was until I was struggling to pay for anything during my first semester of high school. When I...

Family and Individual Counsel             I love the idea of a weekly counsel meeting with all of the family members. When I was in the Young Women program, we were taught to engaged in family counsel. I specifically remember my leaders advising us to sit our parents down when we had questions or wanted to ask for permission for something important. We were supposed to offer the reasons why we believe we should be able to do this thing and then be willing to listen to our parent's view. I loved this idea because my parents were normally very strict and this offered me a way to get my parents to see my point of view. I decided to counsel with my mother about my curfew. I sat down with her at the kitchen table, told her what we learned about in Young Women's, and then explained the topic I wanted to talk about. I want to say that this worked wonderfully, but it did not. My mother (whom I love dearly) laughed in my face.        ...

With my husband's permission, I am going to share a personal story from our marriage together.  We were only married for about seven months when we learned we were pregnant with our first child. It was exciting news, but it was news we weren't prepared for. It took a toll on our marriage because we were young and still trying to figure out how to be married and to adjust to what sacrifices and changes it required. When I was eight months pregnant, I found out about my husband's pornography addiction from a quick web browser history search. I was devastated. I did not know how to handle this situation. I took it personally and instead of trying to understand my husband, I punished him for it and I alienated myself from him. I feel very fortunate that our marriage recovered from this hard time in our lives. I believe I didn't fully understand what my husband had experienced until I was pregnant with our second child and we were living in Eugene, Oregon. I was sitting b...