Introduction

I created this blog for a Family Proclamation project in my Family 100 class at BYU Idaho. I have a strong testimony of the proclamation and want to share its goodness with the world. I am majoring in marriage and family studies. I have a strong desire to strengthen families and teach them the correct principles to live and grow by. Nothing else in this world can bring the joy and fulfillment my family brings to me. I have been abundantly blessed with a wonderful husband who is my best friend and three beautiful children. My goal in life is to teach my children to love and strive to be like Jesus Christ. My desire is that Christ is the center of my home at all times and my home is a safe haven from the storms and wilds of the world. A home where the Spirit of God may dwell.

As a family we enjoy spending time together. We are avid hikers,  we love conquering a mountain. We also love traveling, camping, and playing sports. I also have a passion for family history research and spend a lot of my time engrossed in searching for my ancestors.

I hope this blog will bring a spirit of wanting to be better to my readers. May we take the counsel in this blog and apply it to our own lives. Our families need us. The time to strengthen our families is NOW!

This is my family in front of the Phoenix Temple.

Amazing talk to read-The challenge to become

The Family: A Proclamation to the world

We are so blessed to have such an inspired revelation from our Prophet and First Presidency of the church. The Family: A Proclamation to the World  tells us exactly how we can be happy and have true joy in family life.

President Spencer W. Kimball taught, "The time will come when only those who believe deeply and actively in the family will be able to preserve their families in the midst of the gathering evil around us."

 D&C 1:4 And the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days.

D&C 38:41 And let your preaching be the warning voice, every man to his neighbor, in mildness and in meekness.

The Proclamation states, "WE WARN that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

WE CALL UPON responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society."

We must defend and LIVE the principles taught in The Family- A Proclamation to the World. These are truly inspired words straight from God to our living modern day prophet. We are so blessed to be able to receive modern day revelation.

The last days are approaching and it is evident. Satan's grasp is growing stronger and stronger each day it seems. He is manipulating and twisting truths in people's minds. The popular thing to do is definitely not usually the right thing to do. The family unit seems to be the most targeted and attacked thing in this world. Satan will do all he can to destroy and break a family apart. We have the perfect guidelines in the proclamation and we are clearly warned that we will be accountable to GOD for our actions.

"The object with me is to obey and teach others to obey God in just what He tells us to do. It mattereth not whether the principle is popular or unpopular, I will always maintain a true principle, even if I stand alone in it." -Joseph Smith

Wholesome recreational activities!

I put in an exclamation point because this is my favorite subject! We love wholesome family recreation. I was blessed to marry a man who has the same passion for the outdoors and hiking as I do. We love to hike. We go every chance we get and our kids usually come along as well, they have grown up hiking. I can not think of a better way to connect as a family than when we are enjoying Gods creation's in the beautiful outdoors with no technology or distractions to get in the way. We love going camping, traveling, playing sports as a family and just being together. My husband loves to have fun and create memories and I am so glad. We always make family time a priority.


If money is tight then no need to worry. There are so many things you can do as a family that cost nothing.  Playing catch in the backyard, riding bikes, teaching your kids how to ride bikes, hiking, family walks, board games, outdoor games. The list goes on. T.V however is probably not the best activity as it does not create family unity or bonds.

Do not over schedule your life. This leads to lack of time and energy to plan and follow through with family activities. When we are worn down and over scheduled we tend to want escapist recreation such as surfing the web, T.V and video games. These do not bring happiness or the results we want as a family.



Here are some pictures of our favorite family activities.

These first four pictures are from our most recent trip. We live in Arizona and decided to take a trip up to Flagstaff. We went to the Polar Express (This is a train ride on the Grand Canyon Railway) We rode the train to the North Pole while sipping hot chocolate and eating chocolate chip cookies. When we arrived at the North Pole Santa came on the train to greet the kids and give them a bell.  The next day we went to the Grand Canyon, we enjoyed the most beautiful views as a family as we hiked next to the Canyon for hours.  Then we went to Bearizona. Bearizona is a fun drive through zoo. We were able to drive through bears, bison, wolves, bighorn sheep, and many other animals. The kids loved it. Then we went through the walk through part of the Zoo and enjoyed petting the animals in the farm area and watching the cubs play. This vacation was not extravagant but it was so much fun and my kids ask to go back daily. The memories we created together are worth every penny we spent.

 Family hike

 Family football night.

We love our family soccer evenings.

 Hiking!

From a camping trip a few weeks ago.

 Enjoying the great outdoors.

The value of work

Do your children have chores? Do you work on family projects together?

Here is my personal experience with work in family life.

My Dad was a home builder and had a concrete company all of my life. So all growing up my five brothers and I would help him. We worked HARD.  I was probably the only girl at my school who knew anything about this kind of work.  But the joy of seeing the finished project when all our work was done was so worth it. I learned the value of hard work. I learned that hard work pays off, to never give up before a job is finished, and to always put in my best work. I learned to love doing hard things. We always worked together and I feel that this time strengthened our family bond. On top of working with my Dad and brothers, I also learned to cook and clean around the house with my Mom. I didn't always love cleaning up after my five messy brothers. But I did it and am a better person for it.

We also worked on a cattle ranch for a few years. I absolutely loved every minute of it. I dream of having a ranch/farm one day.

At the present time I have three young children, their ages are 6, 5, and 2. We live in a sub division so we don't have the opportunity of having chickens and animals to take care of, which is so good for teaching your children responsibility. I have to be creative when it comes to teaching my kids how to work hard. Sometimes I don't give them enough credit and I should make them do more than I have them do. I have just started having my 5 and 6 year olds do harder chores. Even though it is usually easier to do things myself it is so important to let the kids do them. This chart seems pretty accurate of what children can do at certain ages. My 5 and 6 year old can clean their own rooms, make their beds, put dishes away, switch laundry, help fold and put their laundry away.  I have started having all the kids wipe down the doors, walls, and base boards and they actually think its fun so that was a win win. Now I will cross my fingers that they keep thinking it's fun.




This fun chart can be found Here.

      This one can be found Here

Here are a few ideas of what you can do as a family to make chores more organized and fun. A family garden is also such a good idea and so fun to work on as a family.
We just put in a sprinkler system and sod in our back yard this weekend. It was so fun to work on as a family, Grandma and Grandpa even came over and helped. The kids had their little ways of helping. Now we can enjoy the beautiful grass and be proud that we did this work as a family.

Family work can also teach our children to love and serve one another just as Jesus Christ did. Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, "The divine attributes of love, mercy, patience, submissiveness, meekness, purity,..cannot be developed in the abstract. These require the clinical experiences...Nor can these attributes be developed in a hurry."
Family work can be those clinical experiences that we need. Family work should be consistent, it is humbling and builds true character, shaping us into who we will become.

Forgiveness

  Please watch this video  NOW. This is the most uplifting and possibly the most Christlike example I have EVER seen!


Forgiveness happens in ourselves.  No matter how bad someone hurts you, we are commanded to Forgive ALL men.

“Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin."

“I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.

“And ye ought to say in your hearts—let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.” (D&C 64:8–11.)

Even Christ himself cried out on the cross where he was being hanged and murdered innocently, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34.) 

It may take time and much effort but our goal must be to reach the point where we do not hold grudges, we love and see people as Christ sees them, and we forgive all men, no matter the offense. God will be the judge not us. 

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

“But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matt. 6:14–15.)

Traditional family

"Teach them to walk in the ways of truth." - Mosiah 4:15

In the The Family- A Proclamation to the World it states,  "THE FIRST COMMANDMENT that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife."

In Genesis 1:28 God gave Adam and Eve this commandment, "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it"

God is a constant and unchanging God. There is a reason that man and woman genetically can have children together and cannot with the same sex.  This is God’s plan. We can never fulfill the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth if we do not follow the traditional family of a man and woman.

D&C 49:16 tells us that we are commanded to multiply and replenish the earth so ,"that the earth might answer the end of its creation."

 Successful Marriage and Families states, “The earth was designed to be a habitation for the spirit children of our Heavenly Father as they come from the pre mortal existence."

 If we refuse to have children then how are those anxious spirits waiting to get their earthly experience going to get here on earth.

The book also states that, "Modern fertility patterns reveal that men and women around the world are choosing to have much smaller families, and much more frequently choosing to have no children at all. These decisions not to "multiply and replenish the earth" have significant consequences for generations to come."

Book -  "Successful Marriages and Families: Proclamation Principles and Research Perspectives" By Alan J. Hawkins, David C. Dollahite and Thomas W. Draper.   Chap 14. 

Here is a very interesting interview on same sex attraction-  interview.

Here is the church website for same sex attraction.

The Power of Prayer in Marriage

Do you pray for your spouse? Do you pray for your relationship? Do your pray with your spouse and your family? If not NOW is the time to start. The power and strength you receive through prayer can be compared to nothing in this world.

President Thomas S. Monson shared some counsel he received on his wedding day he said, " May I offer you newlyweds a formula which will ensure that any disagreement you may have will last no longer than one day? Every night kneel by the side of your bed. One night, Brother Monson, you offer the prayer, aloud, on bended knee. The next night you, Sister Monson, offer prayer aloud, on bended knee. I can then assure you that any misunderstanding that develops during the day will vanish as you pray. You simply can't pray together and retain any but the best of feeling toward one another."

Quote taken from Chapter 19 of "Successful Marriages and Families: Proclamation Principles and Research Perspectives" By Alan J. Hawkins, David C. Dollahite and Thomas W. Draper."

Dallin H. Oaks also advised, "If you are already descending into the low state of marriage-in-name-only, please join hands, kneel together, and prayerfully plead for help and healing power of the Atonement. Your humble and united pleadings will bring you closer to the Lord and to each other and will help you in the hard climb back to marital harmony."

I have a strong testimony of prayer and have personally felt the power that comes from it. When our lives are centered on Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven our thoughts become more divine. Our perspectives change and the little things will not matter. Let us all be humble and pray together!