Week 5

This week we discussed different types of love and what types to look for when dating. This was really interesting to me to see how the different types of love are in a marriage.
The different types are:
Storge= parent/child love, sacrifice, nurturing, protect.
Philia= friendship/"brotherly" love, two-way
Eros= Romantic, passionate, more intimate
Agape= unconditional, charitable, Savior

I realized that each of these types of love are in a marriage relationship. In my marriage I have this sense of wanting to protect, and sacrifice for my husband; I also have a friendship with my husband; and of course there's a romantic side to our relationship; I think the one that I sometimes struggle with is unconditional. Although I always love my husband, I know that I need to be better about having that REAL constant unconditional love towards him all the time. Let's be honest, loving someone as the Savior did/does isn't going to always come easy. I think that's something that comes with time and work and practice. I also think that when you have Agape type love and Philia type love the Eros love will come naturally. When you feel so close and so in love with someone you're going to naturally feel more attracted to them.

Week 4

This week we discussed same sex attraction. I would like to try to write about what we learned, but I know it's going to be difficult to put it into a one way written form, rather than discussion, but I'll do my best. I'll try not to be confusing. I'll start out by telling you the definitions for some terms that are often used when discussing this topic.
Same sex attraction= Non-erotic attraction, desire for intimacy with same gender.
Homosexual= attraction which is eroticized, but may not be acted upon.
Gay= acted upon and espoused as an identity or lifestyle.

Now that we've got the definition for those terms defined, I can move forward. The theory that my teacher taught us that he learned from training is basically that when a person has same sex attraction it turns into homosexuality which leads to being gay. When children are little they want to be accepted by kids their same gender, but if they're not, it can lead to being gay. For example, If a boy has more 'feminine' traits or likes more 'feminine' things he is sometimes made fun of and not accepted by his gender. So that boy begins to spend more time with girls or by himself. When he finally gets that time to be accepted or close to a boy he feels these excited feelings. He's excited because he's finally getting that connection to his gender that he's wanted. These feelings are then thought to become homosexual by society because society makes them believe that having those feelings can only mean they're homosexual. By them feeling that they're homosexual leads them to act upon it and 'become' gay. Is any of this making sense? So all of it isn't about sex, it's about being "intimate" and having a close relationship with same gender. There are a lot of influences and factors that can cause a person to think they're homosexual.

I thought this discussion was very interesting. It makes a lot of sense to me, and I hope that the way I explained it made sense to anyone who reads this. There's a lot more in depth discussion that can happen with this, but it's hard to explain it all on a blog.

Week 3

Something that we discussed this week that I thought was intriguing was when we discussed cultural diversity in family systems. Every aspect of your culture can influence how you think, act, learn, etc. Cultural diversity can be the basis of how you are reared. It can be the difference between how your family acts and how the "neighbors" act. It will change how you react towards people from other cultures. You could live in the same town, but still have a different cultural diversity from someone else in the same town. Culture can be defined as values, rules, customs, beliefs, practices, habits, combination of attitudes and behaviors. I thought it was really interesting how we discussed that you can choose the 'type' of culture you raise your children in. You can choose what values, beliefs, and attitudes you teach your children. There are some outside forces that will teach them things that you don't want them learning, but you have the power to choose what type of culture is developed within your home.

Family Relations catch-up

I've been asked to do a blog for my FAML 160 class about something we learned that week and some insights we have had. So I have been a little behind in my weekly updates. I can honestly say that life has been a little crazy this semester. So far I have learned quite a bit in my classes though. I thought I would just do a quick catch up on some of the things I have learned in my FAML 160 class so far in this post. From here on, I will be doing a weekly update, like I'm supposed to be doing. :)

Introduction week:
I was only able to attend the Thursday class this week because I wasn't added to the class until later. That day we were required to read the talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks, "The Challenge to Become". In his talk he spoke about how Christ has challenged us to 'become' something. He spoke about how the final judgement won't be so much based on good and evil and it will be based on what we have done.

"It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts—what we have become. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become."

Like he was describing, it's not enough to just go through the motions and just do what we're told. It's about why we do those things and how our heart is changed. Are we truly converted? Are we really trying to BECOME like Christ? Those are the type of questions we need to be asking ourselves.

Week 1:
This week I was only able to attend on Tuesday because I had my baby on Thursday. But, on Tuesday we were required to read about research methods and cautions. In this class discussion I thought it was interesting how many different ways there are to do research and how most of them are not very reliable sources. It's good to find out what cautions we need to take, so we don't just believe everything that we read or see because it's considered "science". We need to be careful when we are making a decision about something based on research that it's an informed decision and we don't base our decision solely on the research that is "100%" guaranteed.

Week 2:
This week I was also only able to attend on Tuesday because my son was circumcised on Thursday. Hopefully I'll be able to attend everyday for the rest of the semester. I feel like I have really missed out on a lot of good discussions and opportunities to learn so far. This week I thought it was really interesting to learn about the 'family systems'. I thought the discussion about boundaries was especially interesting and made me think about what kind of boundaries I want to have in my own family. I know that I want my husband and I to be one boundary and then us and our children to be a separate boundary. I want to have clear boundaries set up for each other and our children. I think it's important for your children to know the boundaries you have set up in your family so that there is no confusion as to the roles in the family. I also want to have clear set up rules, which I'm sure will change as life changes, but I think it's important to be consistent in keeping up with certain rules.

Well I think I'm all caught up now. I will be making a weekly update each week from now on.