Classy Marriage Class Blog

Almost every governing body has a council. Cities, churches, businesses, universities, you name it and there's likely a council running the shots somewhere down the line. Oftentimes, council meetings are rather boring, approving decisions that most in attendance agree on already. Some of these councils are elected, others are appointed. Some mesh very well, while others very strong opinions that differ from one another. At any rate, the idea behind a council is to bring together qualified individuals with experience, who together can come up with a decision after pooling together each other's unique experiences, knowledge, and world view. If families are the most basic unit of society, why not run our own councils as well? Counseling together as a family is all about communication. When everyone is on the same page, it is harder to accidentally hurt or overlook someone's feelings or planned activities because it is all said in a council. This can decrease contention, w

More often than I'd like to admit, I find myself attempting to justify a "borderline sin," by attempting to find loopholes for things. These loopholes could be things not specifically mentioned in any spiritual text or church class I've attended, or they could be because I decide that I am doing a bad thigh for a good reason (spoiler alert - if you decide this on your own, odds are you're wrong). I've gotten better at resisting these, but am not perfect at it. These loopholes could be found for simple things, such as tithing or the Word of Wisdom, or they could be for worse sins. On my mission, good missionaries who had a few issues with the mission rules would often discuss how they aren't breaking "the spirit of the law." Sure, it's easy to use the spirit of the law to justify smaller grievances, but I think the spirit of the law works the other way. When we follow the spirit of the law, we have studied the scriptures and other gospel su

In Dr. Gottman's book  The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work , the afterword has this small, but profound statement: "Remember, working briefly on your marriage every day will do more for your health and longevity than working out at a health club." There will be things to work on with regards to your marriage no matter how perfect you are. Many of these things, once worked on, will also require periodic maintenance, which reminds me of owning a home. A house is often considered your most important investment. Unlike many other things, you can buy a home and work on it to increase its value over time. Some of these things, such as mowing the lawn, clearing the driveway of snow and vacuuming the carpet will happen frequently. Other things, such as constructing a shed, adding a new portion to your home or buying adjacent property. After you finish one major project, you will continue to move onto the next until you have the home of your dreams. Of course, the lar

During the American Revolutionary War, one of the United Kingdom's tactics was to attempt to take control of New York and New Jersey. The idea was that if the King's forces could divide the thirteen colonies geographically, they would be able to concur the two sections easier than they could concur the whole if they were together. Satan is also familiar with this method and employs it within our families today. We can think of the status of families in two ways, I'll mention both briefly. The first is of a unit of government. Using my family as an example, we can say that individuals of my family are subject to the laws and rules of the United States of America, down through state and municipal governments eventually ending at my family. Each of those listed previous are both independent entities but are dependant on each other for their existence to varying extents. The second is of a church unit. Again using my family as an example, we can say that my family falls with

We talk about pride a lot in the Church, but I feel like we don't define it very well very often. When we speak of pride, we're not talking about being proud of your kid when they perform well at a soccer match, nor are we talking about individuals being proud of themselves for completing a hard task. When I Googled the definition of pride, several options were offered. I think the one that best fits for how we speak of pride in the church is "the quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself or one's importance." We exhibit pride when we knowingly break God's commandments. In effect, we are saying that we know what will make us happy than the Creator. This, of course, is wrong and should be corrected. In the lesson, we learned about "pride games" that partners play with each other. Pride games are simply mind games individuals play to try to assert undue superiority and are detrimental to the quality of that relationship. Often in re

In this lesson, I read a story by Martha Arnell (don't ask me who she is, I have no idea) talking about her relationship with her husband. She wrote that she tries to be a cheerleader for her husband when he goes hunting and fishing. This made me think about my situation with my wife. My wife and I have  way  different hobbies. She is into photography (she does it professionally) and over planning everything. I'm into amateur radio, meteorology, and other type natural sciences. She likes things that make her feel. I like things that make me think. She wants to be a home body. I want to get out and explore. So how do we make it work? We try. I have taken to second shooting for my wife. I'm not that great at it, but with Photoshop she makes due. I've come to enjoy it, though I mostly get distracted with the landscape and such. She has taken to taking pictures of mountains (I'm more of a nature explorer). To this day, the only picture of a mountain she has liked w