Week 3 - Defending Marriage

President Nelson, when talking about defending marriage, said:

“As partners, you and your spouse will work together to achieve mutual goals and enjoy the fruits of your labors.”

 I love this. When you get married one of the hardest things to do is to learn to be a team instead of 1 individual. When my husband and I got married that was really hard for me. I grew up as an independent person. I like being by myself and doing things by myself. It wasn’t until my husband sat me down and talked to me about wanting to be able to help me with little things did I realize that I wasn’t including him as much as I should. Now, that’s not to say that I have to let him do everything for me, but it does mean that I need to let him in a little more than I was at the time.

After my husband and I got married we talked about some of our individual goals that we had for ourselves. After we talked about our individual goals we talked about what we could do to help each other attain those goals. One of my husband’s goals was to graduate with his Bachelor’s and to get his Master’s degree as fast as he could. Now he is finishing up his Master’s degree and will graduate next April. I love that we were able to work together to accomplish our individual goals. One of the most important discussions though was goals that we wanted to make together for our families. We talked, and still do, about those goals.

President Nelson also said:

“True partners can achieve more than the sum of each acting alone. With true partners, one plus one is much more than two”.

I absolutely love this, as it has always been my hope and dream that my husband and I become “true partners”. Growing up neither my husband nor I had very good examples of a healthy marriage. My husband’s parents are in the middle of a pretty nasty divorce, and my parents fight all the time. One of the things that we wanted was to make sure that even though we may disagree with things, we want to always work together for our family’s sake. I want my children to know that their mom and dad are true partners.

I know that as my husband and I work together to accomplish our goals and put each other first in our marriage then we will be true partners. I know that together we can accomplish more than we could being separate. I’m so grateful for President Nelson and his inspiring words to make me a better wife and mother.

Lastly, I want to conclude with my most favorite quote from President Nelson's talk that really hit me. He said:

“Instead of concentrating on what you are to do, now is the time to zero in on who you are to be—on that person you are yet to become, as President Worthen explained so well. Now is the time for you to focus on developing great attributes of character.”

I want to challenge all who read this blog post to look inward and see the person you are becoming. Are you happy with that person? Are you the person that you have always wanted to be? If the answer is “no” then you need to see what changes need to be made in your life so that you can be the person that you always wanted to be. If you are married work with your spouse to create goals for your family and work together as husband and wife to accomplish those goals. If you are not married work on some goals that you have for yourself and look for someone who shares those goals. I know that as we do these things then our marriages will be full of love and happiness. I truly believe that this is what our Heavenly Father wants for us!