A Brigham Young University Student Journal
We would like to wish everyone a happy Independence Day! As well as our parties, fireworks, and family time, let us take time to remember and pray for those who continue to fight for and protect the freedoms that we celebrate today.
Stance is completely changing its style of publication (more about that to come). Because of our change, we are looking for submissions on recipe and vacation ideas, as well as parental advice. We would like the recipes to be ones that are important to your …
from Dustin Schwanger 
I would like to wish all fathers a happy Father’s Day, especially my own dad. He was my first role model, the one that I always wanted be like. Especially when I was a kid, I wanted to do what he did and wear what he wore—or apparently didn’t wear, according to this picture. Most importantly, he loved me and taught me how to be a good Christian. I just want to thank him and my mom, who has been just as influential in shaping who I am, for all the years they have loved and cared for me. If all parents were just like them, the world would be a much better place.
Many people would have us believe that children raised by same-sex couples receive the same developmental benefits as children raised in a traditional two-parent marriage. Even a brief from the American Psycological Association asserted this view. But, a recently published article by Loren Marks, PhD, …
by Dustin Schwanger Contraception has, again, been a hot topic in the media over the past week, leading to a particularly feisty debate on Fox News. No, this isn’t over the Catholic Church’s suing the federal government over the contraception mandate (that has been conspicuously …
from AmberLee Hansen 
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing this letter in response to your announcement of late stating your stand in support of same-sex marriage. I appreciate your attempt to be inclusive of all people, to help all people feel accepted. The Declaration of Independence speaks truth: all men are created equal. They have certain unalienable rights. But marriage between two people of the same gender is not one of them. That is not marriage, and it is not a right.
Marriage, as a religious institution, is between a man and a woman and should not be redefined by the state. I know there are some loud voices who, in the name of equality, would tell you otherwise. They would tell you marriage is a union of two people who are in love and is detached from religious practices—they are wrong. And they hold the minority opinion. Mr. President, the silent masses of our country stand for marriage, marriage between a man and a woman. After your recent announcement, I decided it is time for this silent voice to speak.
Marriage is a divinely established institution to ensure strong, healthy families. God united men and women so they could have children and raise families. Raising a family is a couple’s crowning joy. Mr. President, two men or two women were not made to have children. And yet you would redefine marriage to call both unions equal; you would call both types of union marriage. I’m sorry, Mr. President, but no matter how many supporters this viewpoint gets, marriage is between men and women—anything else is not marriage.
Mr. President, I stand for strong families. I stand for marriage as marriage has always been defined. People are free to make their own choices, Mr. President, and I am happy to let them. But their choices shouldn’t change how we as a country define marriage and how we as a country define family. Listen to the silent voices of America, Mr. President. Just because they aren’t speaking doesn’t mean they aren’t strong.
We would like to thank all the service men and women and their families for the immense sacrifices they perform everyday to protect our nation.
by Laura Nava The cultural ideals set for love relationships between men and women appear beautiful and enticing. Thousands of books and movies portray the most exquisite romantic situations. Holidays such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and the pinnacle of all romantic holidays—Valentine’s Day—suggest the …
by Christy Hinkson
Christy is an author and a mother of ten. She recently released her new book Home Remedies for a Nation at Risk: What American Leaders could learn from American Families. Also, click here to view Christy’s blog Stand for the Truth.
The debate is back with some people questioning the value of the role of stay-at-home mothers. It is amazing that anyone would actually think that mothers who do not leave their homes to join the workforce are not working. As a mother of 10 children and the grandmother of 4, I would like to invite anyone who holds this belief to come to my house and follow me around for a day. Children enter this world through a process called “labor” and the work associated with motherhood is never done. Each mother in this world works and works hard.
By watching a mother at work you can witness what she does for her family physically, but it is impossible to witness the enormous impact that a mother has on the world now and forever. I dare anyone to find any job on earth that is more important and has a more lasting effect on humankind than mothers do. Governments rise and fall, companies come and go, celebrities leave superficial impressions, but no one can shape and influence another human like a mother can. Women do many kinds of work and make lasting contributions to the world, but any contribution pales in insignificance when compared to the impact of what she does as a good mother.
Sometimes mothers doubt their ability to impact because motherhood is available to so many. This responsibility is given by God to so many, because it is so important. Every hero that has entered this world came the same way, tiny, fragile and placed by God into the arms of a mother. Mothers teach and influence their children in a very personal way, who in turn teach and influence others, who teach and influence many others and on and on and on. All that is good and right in this world can be traced back to the influence of somebody’s mother.
While I was in college, I wrote a simple song and now, 25 years later, I still believe every word of it. I will include the lyrics below. Our daughter, Heather, now the mother of two, recorded the song. A free download is available at this link:
http://www.heartrisemusic.com/Downloads/Music/07%20The%20Greatest%20Work.mp3
“The Greatest Work”
The Greatest Work that I will ever do, will be in my own Home
I want to live in a way that I can give and make my potential known.
The greatest thing that I will ever do, I know inside will be
To live my life as a mother and a wife and raise a family.
The greatest work, the greatest thing, now is clearly in my view
I may reach heights unknown, but I know that in my home,
Is the greatest work that I will ever do.
“He is risen! He is risen! Tell it out with joyful voice. He has burst his three days’ prison; let the whole wide earth rejoice. Death is conquered; man is free. Christ has won the victory.” Christ has won the victory for us over death. …