I absolutely loved the class that we talked about counseling. I loved it so much. I learned a lot from that class that I had never known about counsels before. I think that the way that the church has set up the counsels is a testimony to the truthfulness of the gospel because only the true church could have come up with such a perfect setup. I love learning about the way that the apostles and prophets have their counsels and how they communicate with each other. I think that I might have a little obsession with communication. for one, I really like to communicate and for two I really like good communication. I like people to be direct with me and let me know what they are thinking. I like to speak my mind (maybe a little too much, but I'm working on it) and I like to chat with people and communicate with friends. So, when I learned about the process that the counsel of twelve used in their meetings I was very excited. The only thing I have to do now is learn how to let go of my own wants and desires and listen to the Lord. I love having family counsels and talking things over a s a family too. My husband and I have just recently talked about how we want our family home evening and family counsels to go. I think that planning stuff like that out in advance is a really great idea because you can think about the things that you really want to do in your family before you start doing different things. It was good to talk about it and get everything worked out. I think that with everything that we are learning we are going to be well prepared to have children and raise them up unto the Lord. I think that everyone should be required to take this class before they have a family. It is just that great.

In class we learned about crises in the family. Something that I learn/ relearn/ thought more about was how much our trials really strengthen us if we let them. There are some kinds of crisis that don't really have that much of a deep and lasting effect on us but there are those that we keep with us and continue to learn from. Something that I can to realize even more when thinking/ talking with others about was that it is our attitude that changes a situation from bad to good. We have control over how we feel about something and we can change our attitudes for the better. I think that this can be really hard and sometimes takes a while. I do not think that we should try to never feel or try to push away being upset of hurt or frustrated, but we can learn to overcome those feelings  and learn to see them in more of a positive light. I know that if I try to hid or cover up my negative feelings I will end up feeling worse int he end and it never helps. I think that we all can morn at times and feel sorry for ourselves and others but if we dwell on those feeling we can cause some emotional damage. I'm not sure what I was going for here but I think that learning to deal more effectively with trials and hardships is something that we all can improve on.

I'm really looking forward to being a mother. sometimes it actually drives me crazy because I want to just be a mother right now (I'm not good with waiting). It is especially hard because of my Major with is Child Development. I am always learning new and interesting things about children and I just can't wait to try them out. When we learn about teenagers I sometimes wish that I had a teenager right now so that I can use what I'm learning before I forget it. I know that this seems silly but I really am afraid that I will forget about what I am learning before I have kids.
Anyways, one of the things that we talked about in class that I will have to wait until I have kids for is talking/ teaching about their bodies and God plan for the creation of children. Something that I think is great and that I can't wait for is starting to teach my children to respect and appreciate theirs and other people's bodies right from the beginning. I think that the idea of the "big talk" is so silly and that there shouldn't be one big time that you lay it all on your kids. I think that that could be seriously overwhelming  and confusing. I class we talked about what to say at what age and it gave me a really great opportunity to think about what I would want to tell my kids and how to teach them about their bodies. I thought that it would be good to start out  teaching them to respect their bodies when they are young and move on to the differences between men and women and then go on to why we are different and how babies are born and why babies need to be born and that we were all babies and that you were once a baby and that you are going to grow up and be a mommy and that you are going to have babies too. I think that with such a delicate subject it is important to always keep it in a gospel light. It is really easy to get things wrong, especially in the world we live in today. I know that Satan is trying his best to twist things around and ruin our perceptions but Sexual intercourse will always be a deeply beautiful thing when between man and wife. I can only imagine how bad it will get in the future, that is why it is so important that we stand strong and teach truth.