For this semester, I have an assignment to write each week about marriage. I wish that I could say that I could write more than once a week, but as you can see from the lack of recent posts, school is taking up most of my free time. “Hey, I’m a busy lady,” is my current motto and frequently comes out of my mouth when I have dropped the ball on something menial at home. I think my husband has heard that at least once each day this week. I feel horrible for dropping balls, forgetting a soda in a lunch kit or not going above and beyond by doing one of the kids’ chore for them because they have a busy schedule too. But what I don’t feel bad about is that I’m so busy because I am trying to make sure that our little family has a great future. My husband and all of the kids but the youngest fully support and try their best to understand when I simply can’t do everything that I can when I’m not going to school.
My family is pretty awesome.
I would like to take a moment or two and do some quick introductions and some background on myself so you can perhaps understand some of my posts and perspectives a bit.
My name is Samantha (in the plaid) and I will be 40 years old in just about three weeks. I was married when I was 18 years old and had four wonderful children in this marriage. Our marriage 
ended in divorce after 13 years. The kids’ father moved out of state which made visitations very difficult and then he stopped contacting the children completely. It was a long while that we didn’t hear from him. I was remarried (to a great guy) almost four years after the divorce was finalized. At the time I remarried, the kids were 16, 11, 10, and 8. My husband and I then had a little girl about a year after we were married.
I was born into a family and was raised to believe that having religion in one’s life is a crutch. Believing or having faith in something other than yourself and your family would make you a co-dependent person, and we were to be independent young ladies and we didn’t NEED to have anyone in our lives, we could do it on our own. And so we can, but none of us are truly independent, are we?
God made Eve so that Adam would have a help meet, an eternal companion. He would not be alone. We are not meant to be alone, but we are meant to have eternal companions, as Adam did. We are to cleave unto our spouses, we are to be married and create a relationship between one another as we work together to grow closer to God, and become one. Here’s a little clip that talks about the importance of eternal marriage given by a leader of the Latter-day Saint Church in April 2003. The institute of marriage hasn’t changed in God’s eyes since Adam, so they certainly haven’t changed since he spoke almost 14 years ago.
This week in my class, simply titled “Marriage,” we read a lot of statistics and information regarding the family as the basic unit of society and the ways that it is falling apart. We are paying a disservice to our heritage by continuing to live in cohabitation arrangements and not committing to marriage prior to having children. While I know that this is not the popular viewpoint (note: I don’t really care), we need to make this a priority in our culture, in our towns, cities, counties, states, nation, continent, and planet.
Simply put, children thrive when they grow up with a father and a mother that are married to one another in the same house for the entirety of their youth. This means from birth to at least 18, and preferably for time and all eternity.
Families are the foundational unit for society. Families that are built upon the solid marriage of a man and a woman who are committed to one another. They should love each other and teach their children to love. The dynamics of an individual family are simply too much for one blog post, so I will part with this thought on marriage: a marriage is celebrated by the communities where they are held. Weddings are grand and celebrated worldwide. If marriages were not the beginning of a new foundation with promise of solidarity and future family, then what foundation do we stand upon, other than the foundation of our Savior? He made families, He is of a heavenly family, and he had an earthly family while he was here. If families were not important, He could have just existed here upon the earth without one. But as He told John as from upon the cross in Calvary “Behold thy mother!” Family was so important that as His lungs were aching from the position that he held, that he called upon someone to care for his earthly family.
Family is forever. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
pathwaytohiskingdom 
Good one
Brandi
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