Learn to Manage Money Before it Manages You

I remember a time when I told my mother that I had just started dating this guy. I suppose the fact that I was now a college student, I needed to look at dating in a different way...or at least she was doing that for me. Once I told her, her reaction was different than I could have prepared for. The first thing out of her mouth was "Karaska, does he have any debt?!" This threw me a loop! Of course I ignored her and kept talking about other things going on. To this day, this is still something that I keep in the back of my mind. "A bride-to-be would do well to ask herself, 'Can my sweetheart manage money? Does he know how to live within his means?'" When we are considering marrying someone we really need to look at all aspects of life. Money seems to be a major contributor to divorce. Because many of us marry those that did not necessarily grow up in the same income family, we need to understand how each other likes to spend money and figure the best way to manage the incoming money to be had. Also, "management of family finances should be mutual between husband and wife in an attitude of openness and trust." We need to show our trust with each others financial ability to avoid situations where one might want to hang it over the head of the other when someone messes up.

Women Working in Society

In response to Hilary Rosen's comment  that Ann Romney was out of touch with most working moms and had "never worked a day in her life" Mitt Romney had this to say "I happen to believe that all moms are working moms, and if you have five sons, your work is never over." There is this idea going around that if you are a mom that chooses to stay at home to care for your children, then you are "settling" or "just a mom." It is perceived that these titles are worthless and that you are giving up your desires for your children. This is a bit bogus in the sense that those that have mothers at home to teach them and watch over their well-being that they will build better relationships with each other and be more fundamentally sound with the values that their parents feel are important to their family. My mother was not in the house a ton while growing up because she worked all day. One thing that she did to aid the lack of time she was there was that she would make sure her weekends included her children doing things with her. Not that it was time and activities based upon us, but that she would include us in the the things that she was apart of or with something that she needed to get done. I spend many hours with her at work late at night and serving people in need at the soup kitchen that she was in charge of. This was her way of bettering the situation for our lifestyle and needs.

Lesson on Sex

Growing up in my family, there was like a unspoken understanding that sex is bad. This caused a sense of discomfort when ever any sex related thing would come on during a movie or in conversation in public. I think that as future parents we need to prepare ourselves now for what we are comfortable with explaining about bodies and what happens in marriage as far as sex goes. Sex is not a bad thing.When we teach that it is bad, then problems come about. They are ashamed of our bodies and they tend to shut down. Someone in class explained a great way of explaining the sacredness of sex to your children. I call it the piece of tape model. You explain that tape sticks together better for one bond than if they had stuck to others first. It shows how important the act of sex is. It needs to be in the right manner. Once we explain this idea to them, then they won't have to turn to learn this outside the house.

"The only person you should relate to sexually after marriage is your spouse"

This is a really good thing to keep in mind! I mean, over time looks are going to change. For instance, Brother Williams explained this idea very well. "What's the hype with 6 packs?? I've got a party ball!" It's all how we look at the years coming to each of our lives. We need to find the little things that wont change in our other half that we can love and "turn" us on forever. If we fail to do this, then we may come in contact with a big problem in our society that is occurring right now. If we aren't helping fill the needs of our partner, by loving them in a different ways, then they might turn to other means. Other means being pornography. This is a breaker in a marriage and can harm a family. There is a need to avoid this at all costs and by doing the little things, we can know what we are up against.

Dating Filter System

I think it is interesting that when we talked about this in class that the first filter is physical attraction. For me, I feel like yes, I need to have some kind of interest in his look at first, but most of the guys that I am like "He is attractive!" I don't even go after. Yes, there needs to be some kind of like of their physical demeanor, but not something that causes more of a lust. I feel like the more time you spend with one another, you see the common similarities that you have and those strike some kind of fancy. For me, I am a super reserved person when it comes to a man that I have feelings for or could see him becoming a huge part of my life. Not that I am not open, I am just more aware as to what I share. Like a protective thing. Not saying this is a great way of dealing with dating and getting to know someone, but this is how I am. So, to me I think that conversation is HUGE. If we don't have a common way of speaking to each other, then most of the times it causes misunderstandings and you hit some kind of a way. To either break it down, or turn around and go a different route.