"Oftentimes with young adults I’ll tell the story about the day my husband and I were married. We had three dollars. Even worldwide, that’s not very much money nowadays. It was a faith- based work when we got married. We didn’t get married because of money, or because our education was complete, or because we even had a place to live. We lived with Grandpa and took care of him for the first season of our marriage. We went to school and worked hard, but we entered that relationship as a faith-based work. We knew that we had made a covenant with the Lord and that He would bless us. It didn’t take money; it took faith." Sister Julie B. Beck, Seminaries and Institutes of Religion Satellite Broadcast, August 4, 2009
When my husband and I married, we were poorer than church mice. We lived here and there--it was an adventure. But we loved each other and desired to start a family. In those days, as it should be today, it was shameful, even sinful, to live together before marriage--to pretend or play at something that was sacred and essential to God's Plan and the survival of the human race. So we married and right away had our first child.
I don't really understand the new generation's idea that they must be financially set before they marry. How is it financially different to live together than to marry? Well, it's not. But Satan deceives the best and the brightest into propagating his lies, which the world has swallowed hook, line, and sinker. The two live together in psuedo-marriage, while pursuing separate lives.
The willingness to sacrifice for those you love seems to be missing from the rising generation. They've had the benefits of wealth so long that they've never seen sacrifice. The young woman doesn't want to sacrifice her body to create new life. She may not be willing to forgo this year's new wardrobe, to buy or even make necessary things for her new child. The young man doesn't want to work hard at a job he may not like to support a wife and children. He isn't willing to give up his video games or nights out with the boys to be with the family. Heaven forbid they sacrifice for each other or any children. I found we got enough to eat just as well on a rice and beans, as we did on steak. Also, we didn't need as many clothes, as I thought we did in the beginning.
When I was talking to my young women (when I was YW president), they all said that they were going to finish school before they got married. I kept asking them, "what if you meet the person God wants you to marry?" They said if he was the right one, he would wait for them. I know they were speaking from inexperience, but these are the types of messages that they are getting from the adults around them.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to children, I am so saddened by the many lds families that are postponing bearing children for years after they are married. They want to have more things, or they want to be selfish together before being bogged down with responsibilities. Are we here on earth to play, or are we here to improve our time? It was bad advice my husband and I got from a stake president in our BYU ward to wait a year before having kids. The Lord most certainly softened our hearts, and we saw His hand in our lives. You do have to live in Faith. We have only grown through walking hand in hand with the Lord in our marriage.