Religion's Role in Families

For centuries, God and religion have played an important role in the daily lives of individuals and families. In a religious community, we learn what it is like to have a family within a faith/religion. The dimension of a religious community encompasses and includes "support, involvement, and relationships grounded within a congregation." (Dollahite, Marks, & Goodman, 2004)

The Idaho Falls Idaho Temple

In a recent interview-based study, a remarried mother reflected: "I've been married before, and my first husband was not saved, and he wasn't interested in being saved. That goes way back to what the Lord said about being equally yoked. I was at the church, but there was not a lot of support there from him, because as a nonbeliever he thought I was giving to much time... We weren't serving together, we weren't going together, and we would always feel some type of rift."

Often times, when one person from a relationship is not interested in being a part of their significant other's faith/religion, there are fights, arguments, and disputes about going to any church. It is a great help when both parents are religious, but it can help even more when the religion is shared by both parents. "If a faith is shared, then children see that the parents are doing it (going to church)... But if a house has a parent that is not going, that causes the children to have a misunderstanding of what your are really supposed to do.

PRAYER
Over the past 15 years, prayer has received increased attention in connection with marriage. A study by M. H. Butler and colleagues produced several findings including: participants' statements of belief that prayer has enhanced experiences of emotional validation; promoted accountability toward deity; de-escalated negative interactions, contempt, hostility, and emotional reactivity; enhanced relationship behavior; facilitated partner empathy; increased self-change focus; encouraged reconciliation and problem-solving; and promoted a sense of guidance from God.

President Monson with his wife Frances and daughter Ann.

President Thomas S. Monon shared the following counsel that he and his sweet wife receive the day that they were sealed for time and all eternity: "May I offer you newlyweds a formula which will ensure that any disagreement you may have will last no longer than one day? Every night kneel by the side of your bed. One night, Brother Monson, you offer the prayer, aloud, on bended knee. The next night you, Sister Monson, offer the prayer, aloud, on bended knee. I can assure you that any misunderstanding that develops during the day will vanish as you pray. you simply can't pray together and retain any but the best of feelings toward one another."

Prayer in my life and the lives of my family members has been a big blessing. My younger brother, David, recently had an experience with prayer that made a life long impact on him. He was having a hard time knowing whether or not he was supposed to go on a mission for our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). He had had a meeting with our stake president and came home to find himself alone and able to pray about what God wanted him to do. He got done praying and felt prompted to turn to Doctrine and Covenants 31:3, which says "Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation." He knew then, that God wanted him to serve a mission. Being obedient to the answer that was given to him, he started his mission papers and receive his mission call to the Ecuador Quito Mission, reporting to the Bogota Columbia Missionary Training Center on May 3. It was exactly what he needed and it was the answer that he was looking for. I am very excited that he is going on a mission, and I know that he will be such a blessing to the people that he will be serving, in the Lord's name.

My brother David

REPENTANCE & FORGIVENESS
Repentance and forgiveness is described as "two sides of the same coin", because these two sacred topics are often talked about together. A researcher shared that "Forgiveness does not occur in a relationship. It occurs within the forgiver." I believe that this is true. Often times, the other person may not even know that they did anything wrong, or they didn't do something that offended you. We often find something, usually little things, to hold grudges at people that we should be showing love and kindness to. Sometimes, people are rude and they mean to hurt you, but we need to forgive them. Sometimes it takes a long time to forgive people when they trespass against us, but we need to be quick to forgive because we never know when our last day will be.

We learn in Mark 11:25-26, "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses."
We have been commanded that we need to forgive. God can forgive anyone that he wants to, but we need to forgive often.

Since I was very little and in primary (the junior Sunday school in the LDS church) I have learned about what the steps of repentance are. These steps are very easy and can really help with anything that you need to change and repent of.

Steps for Repentance

1. Recognize the sin/mistake. We admit to ourselves that we have done something wrong.

2. Feel sorrow for the sin/mistake. Feeling sorrowful, we are humble and submissive before God, and we come to Him with a broken heart and contrite spirit.

3. Forsake the sin. We stop committing the sin and pledge to never do it again.

4. Confess. We should confess all our sins to the Lord. (For those who are LDS) In addition, we must confess serious sins that might affect our standing in the church to the proper ecclesiastical authority.

5. Make restitution. Insofar as possible, we make right any wrong that we have done.

Through both forgiveness and repentance, we are able to learn how to accept the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Through accepting the Atonement, we are able to fully heal for ourselves and for others. Elder Richard G. Scott explained how faith in Christ brings about the ultimate healing:
"The beginning of healing requires childlike faith in the unalterable fact that our Father in Heaven loves you and has supplied a way to heal. His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, laid down His life to provide that healing. But there is no magic solution, no simple balm to provide healing, nor is there an easy path to the complete remedy. The cure requires profound faith in Jesus Christ and in his infinite capacity to heal."

I know that the role that religion has in lives can be life changing. I have seen how people have changed, how they have been able to find a change because of the things that they are able to learn. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that He died so that I would be able to live again. I know that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me very much, but that he also loves each of you very much also.