This Week's Marriage & Family Relations Lesson

Well, I finished my lesson this week, part b of part 2 of Teaching your Children Gospel Principals. This week I got to teach on teaching children the value of honest labor and morality/chastity. Lol, I also taught the lesson on fidelity/intimacy in marriage- good thing I don't have a problem with talking about those things. A great quote from my lesson was "Those who teachest are themselves being taught" - or something to that effect. It's very, very true and one of the reasons I like my class, everyone shares idea's of what works and doesn't work in their own families so we all get to collectively learn together.

I suppose it wasn't hard for me teach this lesson, because I've been discussing it with teenagers for - forever it seems - or atleast since I've been married and first put into the Young Women's Organization. However, that was 17 yrs ago and I have to tell you - it's very scary out there these days! I thought it was bad when I was growing up and I can tell you my experiences don't even scratch the surface of what these kids face - each and every day. I think our schools have turned into rated R movies and our children have to try to live G amongst the R. Not easy. If I wasn't proud of my children before, the more I learn the more proud I am.

Anthony for example is the most stubborn child in the universe!!! Even in delivery, he was 2 days late and than contractions stopped when I was fully dilated! Psh, child. When he was 2 my friends and I would chat about how normal discipline wasn't working and we had no clue how to control these stubborn monsters! But we also realized that it was a quality that was going to be needed in the last days. Once they KNOW something and have it in their head - HA, good luck to the person who tries to argue with them. =] He now uses that wonderful stubbornness that I used to dread, to help protect him from everything the world is throwing at him and peer pressure says he must do. No, he is not perfect but he stands tall and finally realized what it means to walk uprightly - now it's mom & dad's turn to help him continue walking that way.

That's what our lesson was about - we cannot be our parents and start puberty conversations at puberty - your children already know by that age. As with anything else, we need to be forthright, honest, and open and include these discussions in family home evenings and more intimate settings if necessary. The Gospel should be the foundation of our homes, we need to teach our children the Lord's values and ideals not let the world teach them incorrect principals for us. And we need to do it when they are young and not when it's too late.

Silly Me

Silly me... for the pic above but I just HAD to show all of you that I actually HAVE fingernails!!!! Wahoo! Not sure how much longer they will last, prolly not through the day so thought I would share while they are actually there. Okay for those that don't see my hands often, it's my wedding ring and than my mom's (on top). And no there isn't anything inbetween my pointer & index finger - that's my scar from my dog bite 2 yrs ago - lol. Questions answered.

Sunday, August 31st - Anthony was ordained to the office of Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. You can see here how much he has grown if you haven't seen him lately. Yep, he is 14 now and in 9th grade! Eek, he'll be in HS next year - life goes too fast. Dean's parents and Brother with his family came up to help assist with the ordinance. Amber came to visit also - his niece at BYU. Darran, has finally caved and gotten a seeing eye dog - Archer. He's a Yellow English Lab so his face looks different than poochie but they got along great and he's a very docile animal. Wow, as a side note, you can really see the wrinkles in Anthony's shirt =0, guess he better start ironing it Saturday nights. =]

People Pleasing

=] Well, 2 days later, 4 lbs lighter and some really bad nights sleep; I'm hoping that I finally have a grip on things. My goal today was to help myself feel better; I went and got myself lunch to see if I would actually eat something (0-0 I know, don't pass out from shock! lol), I upped my anxiety dosage in hopes of not having to take the medication that actually makes my depression worse. And THAN, I sent an email and wrote a note on a wall.

Let me explain; over the past month I have made a real mess of 2 of my important relationships, my self adopted sons Tyler and Brandon. Yeah, I could literally be their birth mom's, which might be why they occasionally call me mom but they were really, really good friends. Somewhere in the jumbled mess my moods were making of my life- they got caught in the middle - hard as I tried to not let them. I thought I was handling things better than last year but my mistake.

I am a people pleaser - might explain a lot of my anxiety, but in some cases I think it's a good thing. Like making me ask for forgiveness so that I can forgive myself. Whether it's my fault or not, I simply cannot handle people mad at me; the closer the relationship to me, the worse my anxiety/depression gets. So, following the advice of "The Prodigal Son", once my head re-affirms itself, I send apologies. It's important to me that whoever it is, they understand why I did what I did, and that I regret the consequence that has resulted from it. At times too much damage has been done, but even if the relationship is not repaired - the hope that I am not thought of as a monster but maybe just as a "demented soul" lol - makes me feel a little better that perhaps one less person hates me.

Some might look at this as wrong but I look at it slightly different. When I think I'm right and have argued- I'm just as much to blame as the person who I feel is wrong because my pride will not let me say I'm sorry. Are good relationships really worth your pride? I've learned they are not. My friends, memories of friends, knowledge and family are all I will take with me when I leave this life. I would really like to have those with me than just a sorry lot of pride and loneliness.