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Final Post

As this semester comes to an end, I wanted to recap with my top three things that I have learned this year. This semester has been one of learning and insights, some of the things that I have learned this semester have cause me to change, not only the way that I think but also the way that I act and the choices that I make. This class has made me realize that every choice I make has the ability to effect more than just me and I need to be aware of the power my choices have. We have talked about each step and of some possibilities of family life that have made me start to think about what I want my family to be like, what kind of wife and mother I want to be, and some other important aspects of my future family. The first thing that I learned this year that I think is really important is, the family is a system. This is an important principle to remember because it is something that you need to be aware of in your family so you can adjust to the situation before any big repercussi...
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Parenting

Parenting. Parenting is something that everyone seems to have an opinion on, whether they have children or not. There are books, podcasts, blogs, and more organizations dedicated to sharing the best way to parent your children. A lot of opinions differ on parenting topics such as discipline and punishment, as well as many others. People spend their whole lives trying to master or find the perfect parenting techniques. This search, in my opinion, is in vain. We already have the master example of parenting with our Heavenly Father. I am going to talk about some parenting techniques that our Heavenly Father has taught us by his example. The first parenting technique that Heavenly Father has taught us is, having a healthy balance between Justice and Mercy. We have seen many times throughout history that God keeps his promises but doesn’t cave and take away the negative consequences when we chose to sin. Something we talked about in class this week was not making empty threats, instea...
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Fathers

This week we learned about fatherhood. My dad is awesome, he is strong, funny, hardworking, and super loyal. My dad and I used to be super close. I was his first kid and the only girl for 13 years. I was definitely a daddy’s girl, we loved going on daddy-daughter dates to the roller-skating rink. He would pull me behind him, we would have the best time together. I love looking at old home videos with my dad, we were always laughing, and you could tell that I thought the world of my dad. The dynamics of our relationship have changed as time has passed; things have happened in both of our lives that have driven a wedge between us. I miss being that close with my dad, I think having a good relationship with your dads are so important. I have seen my relationship with my dad start to shift again though. As I have been away from home for a while and have been preparing to leave on an 18-month mission I have seen him reach out more and show interest in all of the details of my life. Throug...
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Effective Communication

This week in class we talked about effective communication in a relationship. This is something that I was super excited to learn about because I know that it is something that I need to be better at. I know that I am not an effective communicator because I hate confrontation. I chose not to communicate at all if I feel like there is a possibility that it could turn into confrontation. It has always been something that I struggled with, but we learned some good ways to be an effective communication through confrontation. The following steps come from a book by one of the apostles of the church. The first step is called the disarming technique. In order for this step to productive you have to take out your defensiveness. This is something that is really hard for me, I like to be able to defend myself, but I can also see the benefits. When you get rid of your defensiveness the other person doesn’t feel like they have to fight back. Another big part of this step is finding “kernels ...
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Intimacy and Infidelity

This week in class we talked about Intimacy and Infidelity. This was in interesting week because I think these are two topics that worry unmarried people the most about marriage. In regard to intimacy I will only briefly touch on it because I personally believe that is a personal discussion to have with your spouse and I have yet to experience it, so I don’t feel qualified to dwell on this topic. The one comment that I loved regarding intimacy was that it is the biggest piece of God’s power that we have access to. That comment made me think of the quote “Where there is great power comes greater responsibility”. Ok now moving on to infidelity. This is such a scary thing to think about. Every little girl imagines meeting her Prince Charming and having a happily ever after. I have always my future as meeting this perfect someone and growing old with them, happy and wrinkly. This unfortunately is becoming more unrealistic. That used to be the story for a lot of people, get married an...
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Marriage

This week in class we talked about marriage and early marital adjustments. Something I don’t think I have mentioned before is that I am going on a mission for my church in two months. I will be serving in the Calgary, Canada mission for 18 months. The reason I am even bringing this up is because I have noticed that when people find out I am going on a mission they seem to feel the need to tell me the hard/bad stuff about their missions. They don’t know that I am already nervous about this new chapter in my life that I know is going to be hard. Instead of helping me feel better by telling me all the good and happy parts of their mission they tell me how hard it is, how they would never do it again, and to make what they said better they end with “but my mission was a great experience”. This is a trend I see with marriage too. I feel like most people who talk about marriage don’t have many positive things to say, this leads to fear being installed in the younger generation who still ha...
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Attraction and Dating

This week in class we talked about attraction and dating. Now as a single college girl this seemed to be the most important topic for me to pay attention to. Ha! Kind of kidding. But this was a topic I was genuinely interested in, reason being I want to know why I am attracted to the people that I am. There is an actual science to attraction, and it is proven that people with more symmetrical faces are more attractive but for me personality seems to play a big role. During the initial meeting of a person their physical appearance is the only thing I am relying on for attractiveness, but that person can quickly loose or gain that attractiveness based on what comes out of their mouth. I am attracted to someone who is kind and motivated. Another interesting thing I learned in class this week was that women tend to rate men more attractive after participating in an activity that gets your adrenaline going. For example, there was a study done where some couples were separated and asked to...
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