A Brigham Young University Student Journal
Every Saturday while I was growing up, my dad would make either pancakes, crepes, or waffles. The waffles were always my favorite. As I got older I began to pay more attention to how he made the waffles, and I asked him to teach me. …
Fred and Rick were golfing. Fred says to Rick, “My mother-in-law is an angel.” Rick replies, “You’re lucky. Mine is still alive.” One of the trickiest parts of becoming united as a new couple is deciding how to handle in-law situations. While there are many …
My husband and I recently attended a Sunday school lesson that opened our eyes to how these doctrines of the gospel are truly one and the same. In the lesson, the teachers asked us to get in groups and discuss how two documents are related to each other. One was The Living Christ, a testimony from the leaders of our church discussing Christ’s life and His importance to our lives. The second was The Family: A Proclamation to the World, a declaration of our church’s beliefs about family and the plan of salvation.
I loved the comparisons we drew between the documents, and I’d like to share a few of them with you. In each point I will explain how a quote from The Living Christ relates to the doctrines found in The Family: A Proclamation to the World.
1. “He ‘went about doing good’ (Acts 10:38), yet was despised for it. His gospel was a message of peace and goodwill. He entreated all to follow His example.” The Living Christ
When Iooking back on my family, I think of all the good things my parents did for me, but sometimes I resented those same things. I hated being disciplined for arguing with my siblings. Sometimes I really didn’t want to stop what I was doing to read scriptures as a family or join in family home evening. But in retrospect, the lessons I learned from those activities are really meaningful to me now. I love my parents even more now because of the love they showed for me, even when I despised their actions and decisions. The Family: A Proclamation to the World says, “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, [and] observe the commandments of God.” My parents’ discipline and commitment to the gospel taught me in word and deed the things that Christ taught. These things they taught are the good things in my life, the things that have eternal value.
2. “He taught the truths of eternity, the reality of our pre-mortal existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential for the sons and daughters of God in the life to come.” The Living Christ
The Family: A Proclamation to the World teaches that “The family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.” In other words, the family is the eternal basic unit of God’s plan. God is our Father, and all of us are His spirit Children; He wants us all to come back to him. This is the purpose of life on earth. “Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.” Our divine destiny is to live with God and our families forever, eternally progressing to become like Him. God is the ultimate example of fatherhood, and He lays out the example for how he wants our families to be in the words of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
3. “His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come.” The Living Christ
The Family: A Proclamation to the World affirms, “Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.” There is no other path that can give you as much joy as the path that is led by our Savior and Friend. He loves you. He wants the best for you. He gave His life for you. I testify that if you abide by the teachings of Jesus Christ, and strive to live your life like He did, you will be happy. And this happiness, not the brief strokes of pleasure of the world, will last into the eternities.
BY CARI AVERETT
As we are coming to a close on our M.A.R.R.I.A.G.E. acronym series, we must cover the importance of setting goals in a marriage. Here is my most important piece of advice: make goals as a couple, and keep making goals. Life constantly changes. The unexpected …
Let me tell you a little story. I am a little bit of a cheapskate . . . or maybe a lotta bit. Sometimes, as a result, my husband and I eat some foods of questionable quality, because why would I spend 20 more cents …
You spend your whole life planning what you want to do and be for the remainder of life, and then . . . BAM! You get married, and everything changes. It’s a challenging experience to try to take two lives with two plans and merge them into one. In some cases, there has to be a lot of compromise so that the two partners can live their idea of a fulfilling life.
When I was deciding to marry my husband, Tyler, I thought integrating my plan into his life would be pretty easy. My plan in life was to grow up, go to my dream college studying the thing I love, marry the love of my life, have some cute little kids, and otherwise insert myself into his plan. I thought my plan was very conducive to married life. This plan would have worked out great, except that life doesn’t always go as planned, and I didn’t have a back-up plan.
Shortly after I married Tyler, I realized that the thing I was studying was not something I loved. This was problematic because I was almost done—and if I wanted to insert myself smoothly into Tyler’s plan, I had to graduate when he did, or not at all; so changing my career track was not an option at that point.
Another problem we encountered was the fact that Tyler’s plan wasn’t fully developed. Sure, we knew the basic outline: graduate from college, get a master’s degree, get a job. But, all of a sudden, we started figuring out that the track he was on would not lead him to the career he thought it would. We applied for internships, but he didn’t get any because he just wasn’t in the right field (even though he’s brilliant, and any company would be lucky to have him).
These problems led to many nights of stress for Tyler and worrying for me. Sometimes we’d lie in bed about to go to sleep, when I would start worrying out loud and end up in a fit of tears. Why aren’t things working out for us? I’d ask. Why didn’t everything go as planned?
Now, I still don’t have the solutions to our problems, but I have a formula for dealing with aspirations as a married couple that I recommend to anyone having similar issues.
First, you have to talk to each other. You have to get together and write down the things you enjoy doing, the things you could see yourself doing as a career, your ultimate dreams and goals.
When you’re done with that, I recommend that you rank the things on your list in order of importance to you. Talk about the things that you feel are non-negotiable, and things you wouldn’t mind doing without. Work out possibilities for the future, and how those things might affect your relationship and your family.
Then you have to make a plan together. And not just one plan, but several that range from broad to specific, from semester to fifty years, from ideal to worst case scenario. This could take several hours, so make sure you have a block of time set aside for doing this, or else you could end up scratching things out at 3 o’clock in the morning.
The last step is making a plan of action for right now. What will you do today to set you on the right path? Even if it’s just research, it will help you out in the long run. Decide on a timely plan for both of you, and help each other out. Remind your husband when his internship application is due. Encourage your wife to look for opportunities to acquire new skills. Take it day by day—if you always make sure you’re on the right trajectory, you will eventually end up where you want to be.
BY CARI AVERETT
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a document titled “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” that discusses the role and importance of the family. This beautiful document intends for the whole world to benefit from it, not just those of the …
I was going to write about new and creative ways to organize, but while I was looking for inspiration, I saw this phrase: “Why organize when you can declutter?” When I was a senior in high school, my mom read a book about decluttering. The …
This semester, I had a fantastic and eye-opening opportunity afforded me by my Foundations of the Restoration professor. He assigned everyone a semester long term-project, and my project ended up being a significant experience for me.
The guidelines for the project were loose. Early on, I decided that I wanted to combine some aspect of the Restoration of the Gospel with computer modeling. I came to the conclusion that I could create an accurate, three-dimensional model of the gold plates, based on the several accounts we have of the plates’ size, shape, and color. This would give me the opportunity to both learn about Church history and develop my computer skills.
Soon after deciding on the idea, I realized that creating the 3-D model wouldn’t be substantial enough for the term project. So, I resolved to do something more: to send my design to the library’s 3-D printer, and to create an actual scale model of the plates.
After many hours of researching, modeling, and working with the 3-D printing gurus on the second floor of the library, my project idea became a reality:
Thanks to the help of my wonderful wife, the 3-D printing gurus, and several YouTube videos, I was able to create a computer model of the plates. Then, I was able to make that model and turn it in for my term project.
I was led to reflect on several things when I completed the project. For a moment, I was brought back to Uruguay (where I served my mission). Our Stake President said (in Uruguayan Castellano), “Elders! You must have a strong testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel and of Joseph Smith. Can you imagine seeing God the Father and His Son in the Sacred Grove? Can you hear the words of the angel Moroni? Can you imagine the weight of the plates in your hands?”
These were powerful questions that I’ve remembered for over two years now. For my project, I didn’t use real gold. The model did not weigh as much as the plates would have. It wasn’t as shiny or as impressive as I’m sure the real plates are. But, in some small way, my testimony of Joseph’s receiving and translating the golden plates grew. I can now imagine what it would have been like to receive the plates from a heavenly angel. 6–7 inches wide, 8 inches long, and 4–6 inches thick. And all of it “the appearance of gold.” I can think how it must have been to carry the heavy plates (about 60 pounds), and run away from those who would try to take them. I can imagine Joseph taking the plates home for the first time, the heavy, cool metal in his hands.
I know that the gold plates are real. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and he translated the gold plates by God’s gift and power. Because of this, we have the incredible Church and Gospel that blesses our lives today.
BY TYLER AVERETT
It’s that time of year again, folks! Six months of sunshine and warm days are nearing an end as we say hello to changing leaves, all things pumpkin spice, and the excitement of a new school year and new possibilities. With fall on the horizon, …