Relationships

This past week I have been learning more about my future relationships than I though I would ever know at present. I have really been intrigued by all the steps and levels there are in in just one relationship. Mostly I am talking about friendship to marriage. At the beginning of this week I was totally skeptical... How can you live love by the book? It doesn't work that way; but by listening and actually hearing with intent of finding truth I have been able to see some pretty strong guidelines for what I should be looking for in a spouse and in those that I date. Reading about all of the things we have been doesn't mean that every relationship I have is in a book, but by reading about different scenarios and the difference between "Dating and Hanging out," I have a better idea of what to look for.

So Many things I have Learned this Week!!

This last week I have learned so much about relationships and how to develop them. Through listening and taking notes in class I have begun to see what I can do to improve my relationships. I have really learned some important things about the beginning middle and final stages of a relationship. I have learned about the "3 P's" of Dating:

Planned
Paid for
Paired-off

As well as many other things I really liked learning about the stages of a relationship. Like how courting is different than dating. Even though that seems obvious it is often forgotten. I learned about how when there is a problem with a relationship, you shouldn't just throw it away with a divorce. You need to truly work hard to fix it.

Family System's Project Visual

Same-sex Attraction

   This week we talked a lot about same-sex attraction. It really strengthened the opinions that I already have. Often the words "gay" and "lesbian" are used to title someone with same-sex attraction. I think it is so important that we don't put those labels on people. So often "gay" is used as a noun. It's an adjective. We don't need to go around called a white person white, we don't need to state that a black man is black, and we shouldn't go around defining a person as a whole by just one of their attributes. Some of the nicest and most genuine people I have ever met have same-sex attraction. And though I don't necessarily agree with what they think or do, it does not give me the right to give them a label and stay away from them. God loves all of his children and it's not up to me to judge anyone.

Immigrant

    I have noticed some pretty cool this about this last week. My mind has been open to new ideas. Mainly to the immigration of families. I use to be totally closed off to the idea of illegal immigrants coming the the US. I thought that for no reason should ANYONE be coming here without the consent of the law. I didn't necessarily categorize  all people who came here without a visa or papers, but I din't really think well of them either. This week I have learned more about the "WHY" people want to come here and how hard it really is when they do come. For one person to cross the border it usually takes an average of 4,000 dollars. That's a big commitment if you were to have say a family of five. That's a ton of money. It has also occurred to me this week that the people who come here from places like Mexico are generally very good people and very hard workers. And that maybe they were prompted to come to America more so that they could here of the gospel and be taught of Christ's teachings. This week I have really learned to not pass judgment so quickly against illegal immigrants.