Why Marriage?

I’m finding that I have a lot to say about this weeks study on creating Healthy Ties with In-Laws.   My husband and I have been married for 12 years, and the things I would say about this topic have grown and evolved over the years.   Not to say that I know more now than I did ten years ago, but experience has given me a very different view over the years. My husband and I were both born and raised in the city that we currently live now, and we both have a very involved extended family.   We’ve never moved away except for when my husband left for his mission.   We dated for two years before we married, so we knew each other and our families very well.   My husband is the oldest in his family, and he was the first to get married as well.   Once we got engaged things changed in some ways with his family, and by the time we married we got the full taste of sharing every holiday, going to every birthday party, celebration, and Sunday dinner.   To...

In marriage I have learned a lot of things over the years, one of which is to set realistic expectations, and that life does not always go according to plans.  There have been many transitions in my own marriage; some that we glided through together and gracefully like we never had a major life change and some transitions have made us wonder what we ever liked about each other in the first place.  One thing that my parents always told me was, “when you marry someone, you marry their family as well”.  Over 12 years of marriage I feel like I finally understand not only how much of that is true but also how it really affects a marriage. In Richard B Miller’s, “Who Is The Boss” article he states, “When children become adults, the relationship between parents and children changes. In healthy families, the parents no longer exercise control or expect their adult children to obey them. Of course, parents still have the right to set household rules concerning appropriate ...

As we study physical intimacy and fidelity this week, the major point that stuck out to me was the attitude towards intimacy, especially within the church.   I feel like this is something that should be talked about more openly among the church.   In a world where we are constantly bombarded with sexualized images, innuendoes/references to sex, and glorifying physical satisfaction rather than the intimacy within a committed relationship.   We are so overwhelmed with these messages, there needs to be an equal amount of messages on the sacredness, respect, and beauty of intimate relationships to counteract the negative messages. My parents fulfilled a minimum obligation when it came talking about changes in our bodies but the conversation basically ended there, with a punctuation on not engaging in sexual relations before marriage.   I have no memory of my parents discussing sex with me or with any of my siblings.   Anytime sex was brought up it was clear th...