Faith & Family

 Ch. 18 Faith in the Family Life

I really wanted to focus mostly on dimension two from this chapter which is religious practices and family. I love how doing small and simple things can build faith within the family. Growing up, my dad was always really good about having regular family home evening every Monday night. There were times we as kids did not listen or care to really be there but we did it anyway. It was something that was constant and consistent. It was something we could count on doing every Monday. This small thing helped me in ways I can’t even comprehend fully. For me, family home evening was something I looked forward to. I loved learning more about the gospel in my own home. I was even given the opportunity to teach some Monday’s. This helped me grow my personal testimony. I will always be forever grateful for this simple constant in my life. “Religious practices are “outward, observable expressions of faith such as prayer, scripture study, rituals, traditions, or less overly sacred practice or abstinence that is religiously grounded.” Pg. 877 When we participate in such rituals as a family we increase the bond we have within the relationship of our spouse and children. There are a lot of benefits to having such rituals. There was a report done in 2005 on a bunch of devoted youth. The youth that prayed, read scriptures, attended religious services more than other teens were reported having the “highest quality of parent-child relationships, honesty, acceptance, understanding, getting along, and feeling loved by and close to their parents.” Pg. 885 These relationships are precious and important. Doing things to build faith within the family will only make you stronger. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forgiveness

Image
Ch. 20 Repentance and Forgiveness in Family Life There will be many times where we ourselves need to repent and ask for forgiveness as well as members in our family. Sometimes it may be for more serious reasons than others, but the principle is the same. Let me tell you about a time I felt the need to ask my little brother for forgiveness. I was about 18 years old at the time and my little brother was 16. One day we got into this argument over something super stupid. To be honest I can’t even remember what it was about. However, I do remember the hurtful comments and names that were being exchanged back and forth between the two of us. I remember feeling so angry… rage even! I remember feeling so mad I wanted not only to hurt him with my words (emotionally) I wanted to hurt him with my fist (physically.) Instead of getting physical I stormed off saying something along the lines of I hate you! I then got in my car and went for a drive. I was still fuming, but the more I drove the more t...
Read more

Access Denied

  When you hear the word “family”, what image comes to your mind? Is it a mom & dad with kids, same-sex couple, a single lady with her cats, an older couple with their grandkids, or does your mind draw a blank? Well the definition of family has changed a lot over the years and the purpose of this post is not to define what a family is, but to get you thinking of all the variety of pieces that make up a family. No family is the same in number, race, culture, or beliefs yet if you take a family member out of the picture it leaves a hole.  Researchers have been studying this topic for years and do you know what one of the most common questions is? Think about it for a minute. We know that researchers are focused on finding a correlation to the family’s financial well being, social status, education, and job status. Yet, the question researchers care so much about is, how does this affect the children involved.  Let me give you an example, you are a researcher studying wh...
Read more

Gain Knowledge

Before I dive into the main point of this blog today I’d like you to take a minute and write down a few bullet points about what you believe a family is. There is no right or wrong answer, just write down your beliefs or views on the topic. Then take another minute and write down how or where you got those beliefs from. When I did this I found that most of what I thought about the family unit came from religious teachings, personal experience, and likewise people confirming my thoughts. At first I was content with my knowledge and was not interested in learning about others perspectives or experiences. Not because I didn’t care, but because I didn’t find it relevant to me. Now I don’t think I am the only one who has this issue. Some may even ask, what issue? What is wrong with being firm and confident in your beliefs and not taking time to broaden your horizons? I mean we live in a world today where people are divided so quickly just because they are either “for or against” a certain t...
Read more