I've been thinking about my YW lesson for this Sunday and it made me want to write this post.
All you hear about in the last few months in popular magazines, on the radio, and on TV, is who is the new cheating spouse. It seems like every day there is some one new who just announced there marriage of 5, 10, 20+ years is over because they have been having 1+ affairs. Then I was watching The View a month or so ago at the gym and some teenage celeb has said she wasn't going to have sex till she was married and every one but Elizabeth Hasselbeck thought she was being delusional because that not possible any more, she's just kidding herself.
With all those thoughts out there that it's impossible to stay chase and that no spouse is faithful, I read the talks from the YW broadcast in the Ensign. Be strong and of good courage. One ray of sunshine in an otherwise very dark view of the world and what they should expect of them self and a marriage. I wonder what is going through there minds. I know when I was a teen I fully expected I would find a man to marry who would be faithful to me and that I could stay clean and be married in the Temple. But that wasn't abnormal at the time. Sure I had friends in and out of the church that we're making those choices but that didn't change my outlook on my life. But lately after being inundated which cheating spouses, it's hard not to have fear of that happening to me creep into my thought. Luckily my husband and the Lord have made those fear go away. But I think if that can affect me what are the girls thoughts and fears.
I read the talks by the General YW Presidency and feel the love and desire to let the girls know they can do any thing they set there mind too and the Lord is always by their side to help. I just hope I can impart that to the girls on Sunday to give them a fighting chance to make it to the Temple to be married to the faithful man of their dreams, and realize it's not all roses but you can have a great marriage and stay married for eternity. It is possible.
Any Thoughts?
4 comments:
well written my friend.
I actually gave this lesson a couple of weeks ago and it was HARD. I had some of the same thoughts and what made it even worse was that my parents even call it quits after 28 years married. I hate to admit it but it even made me doubt my own marriage. Not that my husband has given me any reason too. Its hard because I used to think things like "if I can make it past the 10 year mark, I'm safe". Its a slap in the face to think thats not true.
The hard part is to get the girls to really truely understand that they have every chance in the world as long as they choose a spouse wisely, and depend on the Lord. I felt like I really had to get the girls to understand that it isn't a race to get married, which can be hard when you are somewhere like BYU. If you rush, it will be that much harder later.
I guess, its a hard one to teach. There is so much to share. Good luck!!! You will do great!
I don't know about your youth, but I heard the exact same thing growing up: it was all impossible, if you weren't on your third marriage by 40 you were doing your kids a disservice, and so forth. They had a similar refrain, actually, when my parents were growing up. The divorce rate has remained remarkably constant at 50% for the last 40 years.
No, it's not good, and there's always some way it can get worse, ... but the world is not ripened yet. When it gets there, the Church will warn us where to flee. Fear not.
Actually, my mom figured she didn't want a temple marriage. She had seen a lot of unhappy temple marriages or divorces and figured it wasn't worth it. ... Then she met Dad. ... Being married to him for eternity ... might not be so bad.
So you see, people have made it through the last 40 years. They have done so successfully despite the world. It's not impossible.
Me here again! I realize the way I put things earlier did not communicate feelings appropriately. What I shared was how I dealt with this myself. Realizing that things may be bad, but they haven't been getting exponentially worse gives me comfort. Socrates wrote about the downfall of moral propriety in the youth. It's not a new thing, this struggle they and we are in. So it's just that it comforts me, and I hope it comforts you. That's what I was trying to communicate. If I had taken longer to think about it, I would have written fewer posts.
Post a Comment