Well folks, this is it! This is officially the last blog post that I will be writing for my Family Proclamation Project. I have learned so much about the Family Proclamation and I now feel better prepared to go out into the world and teach others the importance of the family. Let me just say how much of an honor it has been to write these blog posts. Now that I think of it, I have never included the Family Proclamation in one of my posts before, so allow me to do that now so that those who haven’t seen it can have a chance to read it! Here it is:

“WE, THE FIRST PRESIDENCY and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.

ALL HUMAN BEINGS—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.

IN THE PREMORTAL REALM, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.

WE DECLARE the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan.

HUSBAND AND WIFE have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.

THE FAMILY is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.

WE WARN that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

WE CALL UPON responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.

This proclamation was read by President Gordon B. Hinckley as part of his message at the General Relief Society Meeting held September 23, 1995, in Salt Lake City, Utah.“

I would invite all of you to read this proclamation often and study the things that are in it so that you all may be inspired to come closer to God through your families. I’m so grateful that God has given me a family who loves and cares for me. I’m grateful that I have a wife who always wants me to do my best and who will always have my back no matter what. I’m grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ for showing me the way to true happiness. I know that as we all strive to become more like Him, we will realize that there is no other way that we can be eternally happy. I love you all! Thanks for taking this family journey with me.

Let’s all be completely honest and real with each other for a moment today. I’m going to say something that may be a little shock for you all to hear right now, but it needs to be said…..Okay, here it is…….Wholesome Family Recreation is awesome!!! It’s crazy for me to think that the things that we do with our families really does matter to God in His eternal plan for us! In The Family: A Proclamation to the World, we learn ” Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.”

So why does the Lord care so much that we make time for wholesome recreational activities with our families? I think that He understands that when we all make the time to make these special memories together, we grow to love our families more and this in turn helps us understand the gospel more. God wants our marriages and families to be successful and happy.

Just think about it for a second, how else would we become close with our loved ones? How else would we all be able to see and understand each other’s personalities and traits? How else would someone else be interested enough in us to want to get married for eternity? I certainly wouldn’t want to be married to someone who doesn’t like to have fun! It’s a good thing that I’m married to a woman who does like to make life a party. I hope that when the time comes, I will be able to make lasting memories with my future kids so that they know how much I love them and care about their happiness. I know that God loves us because He has given us the marvelous opportunity to have our own families to make memories with and to whom we can show our love.

What’s up my party people!! Okay, so here’s a mental quiz for you all: Do you remember the last time that your spouse made you super mad? Have you forgiven them for it or do you plan to hold it over their head for the rest of eternity? Regardless of whether or not you still hold a grudge over your spouse for something they did two years ago, it’s time to get better at forgiving!

There’s no doubt that somewhere down the line in marriage, you and your spouse will frustrate each other over something. Whether or not it’s a big deal, it’s going to happen at some point. It will be up to you to decide how long you will want to stay mad over that thing. Friends, here’s a pro tip for you all: The more time you want to stay angry at something, the less happy you and your spouse will be in the marriage. It’s as simple as that! I’ve said this before in my past blog posts, but the couples who are the best at forgiving and then forgetting, are generally the ones who have the happiest marriage because they aren’t angry at each other all the time!

Dear friends, get really good at repenting and forgiving, because Heavenly Father told us that this is the only way that we can get back to heaven. Once we do these things, we will get that happy feeling in our hearts to where we know we are doing what Heavenly Father wants us to do. As you all go about your lives remember to study and learn all you can about these two topics, because they can make you even more happy than you are now!

I believe that there are lots of ways to look at faith within a marriage and family life, in general. The wonderful thing about faith is that it can help you in whatever situation you may find yourself in. Before we get into our discussion for today, ask yourself: Why is faith so important for our family life? What can it do for me?

As I was looking up definitions for faith, I found what I was looking for on http://www.churchofjesuschrist.org. Their definition of faith is as follows: “Faith is confidence in something or someone. As most often used in the scriptures, faith is confidence and trust in Jesus Christ that lead a person to obey Him. Faith must be centered in Jesus Christ in order for it to lead a person to salvation. Latter-day Saints also have faith in God the Father, the Holy Ghost, priesthood power, and other important aspects of the restored gospel… Faith includes a hope for things which are not seen, but which are true. Faith is kindled by hearing the gospel taught by authorized administrators sent by God (Rom. 10:14–17). Miracles do not produce faith, but strong faith is developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, faith comes by righteousness…. True faith brings miracles, visions, dreams, healings, and all the gifts of God that He gives to His Saints. By faith one obtains a remission of sins and eventually is able to dwell in God’s presence. A lack of faith leads one to despair, which comes because of iniquity.”

In the Doctrine and Covenants in section 68 verse 25, the Lord commands all parents to teach their children to have faith. In order for parents to teach their children how to have faith, they need to develop a pattern of faith themselves! If a child sees that his parents pray for God’s blessings every night, and if he sees his parents positive attitude through trials, then that child will begin to understand that through faith, all things will work out for the best. Faith is a way by which we receive all of the blessings in our lives. Our faith to the commandments show Heavenly Father that we love Him and that we trust Him to take care of us in our day to day lives.

As you go through your week, think about how you can practice more faith in your life. Talk with your family about how you all will begin to exercise more faith in Jesus Christ. As you do so, you will find that you will all grow closer to Him and all of life’s greatest questions will start to be given to you.

Today I’m going to talk about how to deal with trials and different issues that a couple faces during married life. I wish that I could tell all of you youngsters that marriage is always sunshine and rainbows, and there’s a love fairy that sprinkles you both with happy dust every night so that you both won’t ever get into an argument for as long as you live, but that wouldn’t be true. Sure, there are some couples that are good about hardly ever arguing about something, but believe me when I say that something will come up sooner or later that you both will argue about…. Before we get started with anything, let me say that there is a difference between arguing and actually fighting.

There’s no doubt in my mind that all couples will argue about something in their married lives. Fighting is where both partners will scream at each other and when one person has had enough, they will stomp off into the bedroom and them slam the door. If a married couple ARGUES, it doesn’t mean that they are mad at each other. It just means that they disagree on something, which is totally fine, because no two people are exactly alike. We all have our opinions about things, and our opinions will be different from our spouse’s opinions sometimes. Not all married couples have to fight when they argue about something. I think that the couples who know how to handle an argument so that it never leads to fighting, are the real MVPs. If you and your spouse do have a relationship where it is hard not to fight sometimes, the best advice that I can give to you is to get really good at saying sorry and make goals with each other so that an argument won’t ever turn into you both yelling at each other, because that won’t be fun for either of you.

I wish I could say that my wife and I have never fought with each other, but that isn’t the case. I grew up in a family where I never saw my parents fight at all, but my wife grew up watching her parents fight all the time. Needless to say, I had a goal to never fight with my wife about anything when we first got married, but that goal didn’t last long. At first, I was scared for my marriage, because my wife and I fought about the dumbest things! I thought that she hated me because she didn’t know how to handle an argument without getting defensive and start yelling at me. It got to a point where I got so fed up with all of our dumb arguments, so I sat her down and we had a talk about how we would become better. We both loved each other so much, but sometimes it was hard to say the things that we wanted to say. Once we made goals to handle things in a more civilized way, things slowly started getting better. Not to say that we were completely perfect after we made our goals, but over time things did get a lot better. Now we are at a point in our relationship where we tell each other what is on our minds (without blowing up or making a big scene) and we try to fix the problem at hand.

Dear friends, don’t get discouraged if you and your spouse fight more than you think you should. Married life is a big adjustment! If you don’t want to fight with your spouse, it’s going to take a lot of hard work from the both of you. Both of you are going to have to learn how to be more humble and selfless towards each other. Start right now and make a goal to handle problems in a way that won’t make a situation worse. Make the decision to always make the situation better with everything that you do and say to your spouse. Marriage is one of the greatest blessings in our lives and we should never take it for granted. Remember to treat your spouse the way you did when you were both falling in love for the first time!

Is marriage really that necessary for all of us to reach our own fullness of joy??? Short answer: Yes!

In order for someone to understand why marriage is so necessary to our fullness of joy, one has to think about why it was a part of God’s plan for us to come to this earth to gain a mortal body in the first place. Our whole goal here on this earth is to one day return back to the presence of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ with our families. We have learned that part of our “fullness of joy” will be that opportunity that we will have to live with our families forever and to continue adding on to our families. In order for us to have joy in our future posterity, we will first need to find someone that we love, and then we will need to be sealed to our spouse in one of God’s holy temples for time and all eternity.

Joy doesn’t only need to be found with one’s posterity. Anyone can start their journey of achieving their fullness of joy with their spouse. The time that a married couple has before they start having children can be gone all too fast. That’s why it is so important for newly weds (and any married couple for that matter) to spend time getting to know each other and making sacred memories together. Might I suggest that you newly weds schedule a time to have a date night every week so that you two can get to know each other more, and try things that you have never done before. If you don’t know what to do, then Google it! The ideas are out there…

It was Mignon McLaughlin who once said “A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” A successful marriage also consists of both partners learning how to forgive, be patient, serve each other, have a positive attitude, and trying to be a better person constantly. Once these things are implemented within a marriage, your love for each other will grow ferociously and you will start achieving that fullness of joy that you desire!

LOVE YOUR SPOUSE!!! Guys and gals, listen up closely because I’m about to smack you all in the face with some sweet knowledge! Okay, so this week has been suuuuuuuper busy for me. To paint you a picture of what my week has looked like so far, every morning I have gotten up to go to work for eight hours, then I come home and do homework for another six hours straight. I won’t go into every single detail of what I do every day, but my life gets busy! Anyways…. A few days ago, I came home EXHAUSTED! I was stressed because I had a lot of assignments due that night, and that afternoon was the only time that I had all week to get things done. Needless to say, I was pooped before I even started the tasks that I had to do. I had no time to eat, look at my phone, breath, etc… Life was completely hopeless for me………. So I thought…….. Right then, my eyes were introduced to the most beautiful thing that they have ever seen. My wife came through that door with a burrito from Costa Vida that was meant JUST FOR ME! Hallelujah brothers and sisters! There was a gleam of light for that dark and dreary day after all! My wife knew that I was too stressed to make dinner that night, so she went and bought me a delicious burrito so that I wouldn’t have to worry about eating that night. My wife was my guardian angel that night, and she was my inspiration to get everything done that I needed to do.

This was just a fun little story for me to brag about my wife, but this is the point that I want to make today. It’s all about the little things that we do everyday to show our spouse how much we love them and that we are committed to them. When you get married, you promise that you will always choose to love your spouse no matter what conditions life might send your way. Of course it takes a lot of effort to show your spouse that you will love them until the end, but if you look at marriage with a mindset of doing little things for your spouse everyday, then your marriage will be more enjoyable and both partners will have a joyful countenance even when life gets exhausting for them. Elder Lynn G. Robbins said, “True love is not something you fall in, but grow in. It is not happenstance as much as something you control, choose and act upon.”

As we go though our busy lives, let’s take time out of our day to show our spouse how much we love them and admire them. As we do this, we will find that marriage is truly ordained of God and that it was given to us so that we could experience our own “fullness of joy.”

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This week’s topic is very sacred. Today I would like to talk about marital sexuality and intimacy. Intimacy is such a sacred and beautiful thing in a marriage. It is a way for couples to show how much they love each other and to also show their commitment to each other for eternity. Heavenly Father has instructed us all to “multiply and replenish the earth” but only when we are legally and lawfully married to our spouse. Intimacy is a way for couples to meet their needs, and if done correctly, it will show the other person how much they care about them.

It’s no secret that while in the dating phase (especially while in the engaged phase), it can be pretty hard to resist the sexual urges that one has. Those of us who are of the LDS faith believe that God has commanded us that we should wait to have intercourse with our significant other until after we are legally married. It is totally natural to feel those sexual urges before marriage, because that is how our bodies are designed. The important thing to remember is that because God loves all of His children, he wants all of them to grow up in a stable home where both parents love each other and are committed to each other.

For those who are newly married (or if you have been married for awhile), you should always remember that the perfect sexual experience won’t just happen out of thin-air. The perfect sexual experience with your spouse should start long before you have intercourse with each other. This perfect experience should all start with the way that you treat each other every day. Both partners should be doing special things for each other all the time as to create that bond of love. Do you wake up in the morning and bring your wife breakfast in bed? While your husband is at work, will you write him a note to tell him how special he is to you? When you both are together, are you focused on each other, or are you focused on your phone? I believe that all successful marriages should always consist of making time for each other so that both partners can feel that special bond forming between them. Your perfect sexual experience will only get better as you decide to focus on each other while you both focus the importance of God’s plan that he has for you.

Have you ever been in a situation where the butterflies in your stomach must have drank a 5-hour energy that morning, because either something really bad or really good is happening? Well that’s how I felt on the day that I got married to my wife, Raechel. That morning of our marriage, I felt so nervous and excited that I thought that I was going to puke due to all of my emotions. In the past, I have heard so many stories about someone’s wedding day being a disaster, so I was honestly a little scared as to what would happen throughout the day. Needless to say, everything turned out great. The only thing that I didn’t care about so much was how long pictures took after our ceremony. Ughhhhhhhhh! Note to all men who are about to get married: Don’t complain about how long the pictures are going to take. Just suck it up and do it for your wife! Tell your mom or whoever to bring you a snack so that you don’t get hangry….anywaysssss…. My wedding day was awesome! It was the start of the best time of my life.

As early as the dating stage and being engaged, my wife and I decided that we needed to build upon a good foundation if we wanted to have a happy marriage. We knew that we wanted to say prayers together, read our scriptures together, go on at least one date every week, etc. We tried to get into the habit of doing everything that we wanted to do early on so that we wouldn’t have problems starting up during marriage. For the first couple months of marriage, we were really great at doing all of the things that we wanted to do, but as her masters program started, and as I started working full time, we slowed down a little bit, because we were both exhausted when we got home at night. We did the best that we could, but there was no doubt that we weren’t doing as well as we wanted to.

We decided that we needed to set goals and make a plan to carry out our goals so that we could accomplish them. We came up with a plan to read our scriptures together before we turned on the TV or before we left somewhere for a date. This helped us accomplish our goals, and it also strengthened our marriage because we both were active in working on the things that were holding us back from being a good spouse to one another. We knew that as we focused on the things that matter most in this life, then we would have the happy marriage that we have always dreamed about. It was L. Whitney Clayton that said, “Faith is the foundation of every virtue that strengthens marriage. Strengthening faith strengthens marriage.”