Thoughts From My Mom

*I asked my Mom to write something about marriage for me to post in my marriage series.  Many thanks to her for taking the time to write her thoughts.

My beautiful Mom and her dog Lizzie

Marriage was ordained by our Father in Heaven. It is the natural thing to desire
someone to spend your life with; someone to love and someone to love you.
Marriage is a very serious commitment and is not to be taken lightly. After having
been married nearly 58 years now I can look back over my own experiences and
experiences of others and I can truly say marriage is a wonderful thing.
Considering how inexperienced we are as youth, I think it sometimes a miracle
that as many marriages survive as they do.

Every marriage has its challenges and will have its lessons to learn. Marriage is the
perfect place for couples to learn those lessons together. It is a great place to
learn patience, forgiveness, money management, sacrifice, compromise.  No one is perfect in this life…but happiness can be found despite difference if patience and tolerance is practiced.

I think one lesson most of us learn early in marriage is that the only person we can change is ourselves. Yes, we do make changes to make our mates happy, but demanding or insisting on change is probably going to cause resentment more than change.

When a person marries, they need to consider that the person they are becoming
partners with is a precious child of God. I think each person should consider it
one of their responsibilities to help their mate to become the person Heavenly
Father wants them to be. That does not include nagging….it simply means
encouraging them when they are trying and supporting them in ways that are
helpful.

Marriage is a great institution that takes lots of love, patience,and working
together to solve problems. It takes loyalty to ones’ spouse. Even though
marriage can be challenging, there is one way to make sure it is successful: make
Heavenly Father you third partner. After careful discussion together to solve a
problem or make a decision, that decision should be taken to Heavenly Father for
verification. That doesn’t mean everything will be easy…but it can be right!! That
makes a happy marriage very likely.

Welcome Home Brother

The family waiting for Connor.  Travis is present too -- on the phone.

Connor has been serving for two years in the Nagoya Japan Mission.  He got home April 16th.  We were gathered at the airport waiting for him.  When Connor finally came down the hall Tia was standing beside me holding a poster she made that says, "WELCOME HOME BROTHER!".  There was a man in front of Connor who laughed a little because it looked like we were greeting him.  Tia said something like, "Welcome brother!  And you too!"  and the man joked about being adopted.

This person looked a little like he may not have had an easy life so far, and I wondered if he had a loving family somewhere to greet him.  I think it would be great if everyone had a family who was waiting anxiously for them to arrive because they love them, and always want them to feel welcome at home.

We are all brothers and sisters of a Heavenly Father.  He is waiting anxiously to see if we will choose to come home, and then He will greet us with love, and make us feel welcome.  It is a lot easier to choose Heavenly Father if there are people who are happy to see us no matter what, and who greet us with love, and even "adopt" us as family when our own isn't available.   

Some of us have been born into very loving families.  Others have not.  It is up to us to greet all people with love.  We do not know what hard things anyone may be dealing with.  We do not know if they have anyone else who will greet them with kindness, love, and joy.  It is possible that our greeting and our love may make a very big difference in someone's day and in their life.  It may lead them to more readily accept that there is a loving Heavenly Father who is waiting to say "Welcome Home."

Trisa, Kayli and Travis (who is on the phone Trisa is holding)

Dan was the first to dive under the roped off walkway and hug Connor.
Dan planned on giving Connor a "two hour hug".
He didn't get that, but he did hug him as much as he could!

Trisa and Connor

Kayli and Connor.  I didn't aim the camera very well because I was pretty
sure that Kayli would move.