Fatherhood

Fatherhood. Does it matter? Is it as important as motherhood? Is it important at all?
YES! Fatherhood matters. I have spoken before on the importance of representing men and being equal to both sexes. I find that the inequality in this country is not of legal issues, it is of personal discrimination. We need to not single any sex out as better or worse we just need to view all as equal partners to better each other. It is important for us to remember that it is the Father and the Mother together that can truly rear a family the best.
We know from studies that children who grow up in families without a father have greater disadvantages than those who did have one. We should encourage men to be strong and honorable men who honor the right to be a father. In the media these days we see a lot of negative portrayal of men and fathers. Often times they are viewed as ignorant, foolish, or lazy in television and film. It is sad to see that we feel the need to demoralize any sex. I am not a feminist, I am not a shovenist, I am someone who believe in equality for all and the responsibility we each have to lift each other and help each other be the best we can.
Yes to Fatherhood and yes to Motherhood!

What is love?

What is love? Something we talk about so frequently. Do we really understand it? I'm not so sure we do. Have you ever asked someone to define love? It isn't quite so easy. That being said, we can feel it and it is real. Love is powerful it is potent and it is life changing. Talking in my family relations class recently we have talked a lot about families and preparing for marriage. I feel that marriage is one of the most noble things we can achieve in this life. Marriage is one of the ultimate signs of selflessness. When two people are fully devoted to each other and want the others happiness more than their own they can both truly be happy. To me love is about happiness. It's about seeking someone else's happiness above your own. We often see love as an expression through sex. Sex isn't love. Sex is lust. The wanting of someone in a physical way. The true expression of true love is of course sex. But only when it is through the sanctity of matrimony. Marriage is so important because it is selfless. Refusing to marry because of reasons pertaining to own wants and wishes is selfish and not a true expression of love. I hope all can understand this and take this to heart. We need to defend the great purpose of marriage.

"No Boys Allowed!"

I've been thinking a lot lately on the idea of media and its effects on who we are as individuals. I find it a fascinating idea that we are so affected by the media and what we consume. A thought that has been bouncing around in my mind for some time now is this whole idea of Boys and how social pressures effect them. We often talk about girls and how the media and social pressures effect them but we rarely if ever talk about boys and how they are dealing with things. I would suggest that boys are just as effected if not even more. We all the time talk about how girls are negatively impacted and because of that it is always on people's minds and frankly there is a sense of sensitivity towards it. However with guys it is never talked about and the effects go almost unnoticed. I would still believe that it is impacting boys like crazy. We live in a woman's world, where they demand rights, respect, and superiority. Now I want to clarify something right now, I am 100% for equality among all people including the sexes. However I have to also clarify that equality does not mean superiority. A lot of what people demand these days is not equality. Frankly if we look at things from a legal standpoint we are equal. All people regardless of sex, ethnicity, race, or sexual orientation have the same exact rights as anyone else in the United States. So then why do we need more? Because people are unsatisfied they want to be better. This is a dangerous game to play. We should not be trying to be better we should be trying to uplift each other to the best we can be. I think that the media nowadays has been damaging the male image and it is frightening because it is almost improper to be a man. How scary a concept that our children will not be able to be proud of the fact that they are something (man, woman, or whatever). We should instead be focusing on building each other up. Magnifying our differences in gender and making those our strengths.

Well that's my two cents.

Exposure to the Elements

So another week has come and gone. Starting a new semester at school usually causes one to take time and reflect about a few things. So I just started back up at school here in BYU Idaho and have been doing just that. Still early in my college career I am uncertain as to what exactly I am going to do with my life. Not very productive, but It's an important decision to make, I don't want to rush it. So here I am, at school, studying, struggling. Everyone says "follow your dreams" but then when you say what you want to do they say "oh...what are you going to do with that?" Because for crying out loud dreams don't make money. Odds are I probably won't be famous, and I probably won't be making millions of dollar every year. So then here I am thinking of realistic things I could do for a living that I would enjoy. The things that make money, I don't want to do. The things that I want to do don't make money. Yet I want a family, I want a big family, but those cost money. So what to do?

We live in a complicated world. I want to be able to provide for my kids, and the way the world is going, that could be harder and harder. It's going to be a time where teaching them proper values will be more difficult than ever. I was lucky, I was home schooled till I was 10 so I got proper values taught to me without out interference. Now I am not necessarily saying all should home school their kids. It just happened to work with me. I did go to public school from the time I was 10 till 18 so I got the full high school middle school experience as well. Jesus said that we should be in the world but not of the world and I agree with that wholeheartedly. To just shut your kids out and deny them contact with the evils of the world could be risky and dangerous. They need to understand what is out there, not just be exposed to one opinion. Then again we don't also want to just throw them in the midst of evil and not warn them or prepare them for what they will find, that's a little messed up.

I digress. The point I'm making here is that the world is troubled, yet we all can stay true to our values, Generally speaking most people believe in the importance of family and morals. It's just the media that corrupts that idea. From my Family Relations class I have learned that we need to be exposed to studies and information out there about the family. Ignorance is bad. As we stay exposed to these things we can have strong families as we use our critical thinking to understand and make our own opinions about it all.

Introductions

First things first I feel the need to introduce myself, out of a sense of common courtesy if for no other reason. I am your average 20 year old male from the United States of America. I grew up in a military household which, to some, means an insane amount of discipline whereas for me it meant a lot of moving (not that I wasn't disciplined I just wouldn't call it insane amounts, that sounds too excessive for my liking). We moved on average about every two years or so. I lived all across the U.S. and even spent some time overseas in the Middle East. It was a tremendous childhood that taught me a lot about myself and the world. Being so nomadic while also being home-schooled for the first 4 years of my official schooling sort of forced my family to draw inward and gain strength from each other. My family is very important to me.
I have always had a gift at understanding the way people work. I haven't always realized it but over time I've come to notice it more and more. I enjoy trying to understand people and why they do what they do. I look for commonalities between people and things. It is here in this blog that I wish to speak about some of the things that cross my mind. I enjoy making the complex things of this world a little more simple for all of us. It helps things make more sense and avoid unnecessary stress. I will be sharing my thoughts on things about people, family, current events, etc. I hope you can find my thoughts useful and entertaining.