Reliable sources and Family relationships

Unlike opening a book about science or math and finding equations to solve experiments, gathering family relation information can be very difficult to experiment with. One reason is because there are no two people that think alike. Hence educated guessing must take place for family research. Some tactics social scientist may use are questionnaires, interviews, case studies, and observational approaches. Some of the subject’s social scientists look for in these studies are as follows; human development, attitudes, behaviors, human ecology, home economics, and marital status. It is very interesting to note that all family cultures are different. For example, a family from a rural area will act different than a family from the urban area. The different races can result in different cultures as well, such as living different traditions. A middle-class family is not going to live exactly as a upper class family would. Please know that I am not calling out any race or trying to be racist in any way, that’s just how it is.

Another thing that I thought was interesting is that the definition of marriage was clearly defined even obvious including a law named DOMA which states that “the federal government will only recognize a marriage between a man and a woman”. Then in the Obama presidency, that all changed and DOMA was no longer enforced. Then marriages between two women and two men were progressively becoming acceptable. Personally, I appreciate the document titled A Family Proclamation (Link provided at the bottom) produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In there we learn that a marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and allows for future generations to come about for many generations to come. Which means that we are here to have families and to teach our children good morals and values, and how to be good hard-working people that want to make the world a better place. This can be best accomplished through an intact marriage between a man and a woman. But of course, things happen, and we cannot always be that perfect family. Divorce has been a huge problem as well as cohabitating. These can be a result of multiple variables such as financial problems, stress in the relationship, drug and alcohol abuse, and lack of trust as well as commitment. But there is a solution to every problem.

Something that could potentially benefit your families is making God the center of your home. Now God can be identified in many ways. Many believe He is Jesus Christ; many others believe He is some other great all powerful being. Whoever you classify God as, bring them into the center of your household, your relationship and in your life in general. You will see that as you do so you will have peace and comfort and you will have a greater relationship with those around you. I was a missionary for my church, and I gave this council to several people, and it help them significantly; more job opportunities came up, they had no desire to fight anymore. I would love to hear any comments from the readers of my blog, so feel free to share your thoughts and questions, and I believe we can all be enlightened.

One last thing I would like to share is something my instructor stated as we were talking about developing our own thoughts on certain subjects based on who we deem as reliable sources. Michael Williams, one said that

“Most of us develop our beliefs and opinions without giving a great deal of thought to how we arrive at those conclusions. We seem to arrive at most of our beliefs without considering whether our methods were sound and consistent with our values. In fact, it is not uncommon for people to change their values when a new belief or testimony does not align with their values. That can be both helpful and detrimental.

I invite and encourage you to make your own learning and belief process this semester conscious and intentional, rather than automatic. The decisions you make and conclusions at which you arrive have both life-long and eternal consequences. And it just may be that you'll begin a life-long process of being wise, thoughtful and intentional in all of your important decisions and beliefs Wouldn't that be wonderful!”. I hope all is well, stay safe and weather the virus well.

The Family Proclamation (churchofjesuschrist.org)