What is Marriage? and Blended Families (L12)

This week we talked about blended families. But I love how we started the week and I learned a lot from it. We talked about what marriage used to mean and what it means now. A divorce did not used to be easy. In order to divorce, you had to have a reason. And even with a good one, it was hard to actually get divorced. Someone had to be a fault for something almost irreversible. When someone was at fault, it also made determining custody a lot easier as well. Then we came up with no-fault divorces that allowed people to divorce for any reason. Something Brother Williams said really caught my attention and I can't seem to get the thought out of my head. Marriage is the only contract in the United States that we do not have to keep. It's also one of the most important ones. When you are sealed in the temple, Brother Williams said, you make covenants with God, not with your spouse. So when a decision is made to marry and then to divorce, it cannot be taken lightly. Heavenly Father is the one you want to break a contract or covenant with, not your spouse. We also talked about blended families. I am not going to spend a lot of time on it, but it's important to remember that blended families don't only affect the parents or even just their family, it affects many people. If you are thinking about marrying someone who already has children, remember that it will not be easy. It usually takes about 2 years to reach any kind of "normalcy." You should also allow the biological parent to do the heavy discipline, while the step parent is the support. You two can and should talk about what kinds of things you want to do, but have the heavy discipline come from the biological parent.