10 Steps to Happiness
Post #1
Last Tuesday
I went to the dentist where one of the dental assistants asked me, “So, how
many kids are you up to now?” I told her seven and her mouth dropped open in
the usual response. She recovered and said, “Well, I struggle with my two, I
don’t know how you do it!” This is also the usual response.
On Friday I
took all seven of those kids to the dollar store, to be honest I was really
nervous about this trip. Seven kids in the dollar store? Ya, that’s for crazy
people! Before we went I reminded them that we were shopping for Nana’s
birthday party this time, not for themselves. At the door I hushed them all and
in we went. I quickly ushered them all to the “hair and beauty” aisle where I
told them that I would give them a tour of the store so they could find the
perfect gift for Nana. After the first round we walked through again and they
all picked their perfect present for her. When we went to the front of the
store to pay I jokingly said to the cashier, “Sorry to disturb your peace!” Her
eyes went wide and she said, “Oh no! No you didn’t! Your kids are so well
behaved! I don’t know how you kept them so quiet!
Later on
Friday I was watching the Deacon’s basketball tournament when someone from our
ward sat beside me. In the midst of our conversation he said, “Well, you two
have one of the nicest families in Cardston, I don’t know how you do it!”
I bet you
are starting to see a theme in my conversations with people about my family. “How
do you do it?”
Most of us want
to know ways to make our family relationships healthier and stronger. Lucky for
us we have been given some guidance in that area. Some great information on how
to have a happy family life comes directly from The Family: A Proclamation to
the World.
In President
Henry B. Eyring’s BYU Address about the Family Proclamation he said, “the title tells us something about how to prepare. We can expect that
God won’t just tell us a few interesting things about the family; he will tell
us what a family ought to be and why. And we know at the outset that we could
be easily overwhelmed with such thoughts as “This is so high a standard, and I
am so weak that I can never hope for such a family.” That feeling can come
because what our Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ want for us is to become
like them so that we can dwell with them forever, in families. We know that
from this simple statement of their intent: “This is my work and my glory--to
bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).”
In the
middle of the seventh paragraph of that sacred document it reads, “Happiness in
family life is most likely to be achieved when
founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages
and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome
recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and
are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their
families. Mothers are primarily
responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred
responsibilities, fathers and mothers
are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or
other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation.”
Check back tomorrow to see these main points broken down to see how they can help with family happiness...
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