Family Patterns

Have you ever thought that your family is so different and crazy and dysfunctional that no one really understands what it is like? Or is your family the polar opposite, that everything is cookie cutter perfect and just right on the dot about what a family should be? Maybe you fit in the middle, where your family has their crazy times, but still has their moments of being the picture perfect family? Well, it just so happens that all of our families, be them perfect or perfectly dysfunctional, have patterns or rhythms with which they work. One family may have a pattern of holding a little meeting to work through conflicts while another family may have the pattern of avoiding it altogether. One family may have the tradition of family dinner every night, or another could have both parents working in which dinner is a different sort of affair. I am not here to say which ones are right and which are wrong. Keep in mind as you read that I have very little experience with families beyond growing up in my own family. *Quick sappy insert: I love my family. They truly are my greatest heros, and I aspire to make them happy.

Really, what does that mean to you and me? So we have a rhythm to the way we live, big deal. But what about to those people that want to change how they live. Sometimes the ways in which we live are not healthy, or they cause excessive amounts anxiety or stress. *Side-note: Not all stress is bad, stress and hardships can keep us going. To see the point more beautifully illustrated see link here.  These repetitive ways of dealing with a problem in family life might just not be working out. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe that the family is the most important unit in society and that we must guard it as faithfully as possible. The problems that arise in a family should be worked out; we should seek understanding and love when solving a negative tradition. We discussed in class the importance of understanding others and coming to understand their point of view of the situation. In the LDS faith, there is a document titled The Family: A Proclamation to the World, in which the leaders of our church have outlined how we may best come to understand others in our own families and resolve misunderstandings and hiccups that happen.