Life is to be enjoyed not just endured! - Family recreational activities
This week in class we talked about engagements, newly weds, and young couples. I particularly love talking about children. This question came up. Does having children strengthen or weaken a marriage relationship? Many statistics stated yes. But our class discussed that it could go either way depending on how you handle it. This is like trials in our lives. You can see them as a blessing and a joy. It can either make your relationship bitter or better (stronger or weaker). My teacher mentioned how he grew closer to his wife as she included him in the process of pregnancy. They went together to the ultrasounds she showed him when the baby kicked. It's been shown and my teacher has found in his therapy sessions he gives that husbands have a tendency to feel distanced when the baby is born. Wives cling to their mother instead of strengthening their relationship with their spouse. The husband wants to feel needed. As he is more involved in the pregnancy process, he will be more involved later in life. Having children can be a great strength to the marriage.
Another thing stated in the different stages of the Theories and Dynamics book is the need for the spouse to keep their relationship strong in life even as children enter and leave the home. A common problem happens when parents get too involved in their kid's lives that when the kids leave the home the couple has forgotten how to keep their relationship going. They can't let their relationship die even during the process of having kids. How is this possible?
Date night! and family time!
Life is to be enjoyed not just endured! Recreational activities give us that change to enjoy it.
A great book recommendation is "Count it all Joy" written by Sherrie Mills Johnson. In chapter 9 she shared a fun experience. "My other aunt, Aunt Velma, took swimming lessons when she was eighty-three years old. When Mother asked her why she was taking swimming lessons she smiled and said, 'I just thought it was about time I learned how to swim.' The next year, Aunt Velma took a CPR class, and her reason for doing that was, 'Well, I just never know when my friends will need it.' What both these aunts taught me is that a person doesn't have to give in to the lone and dreary aspects of telestial life. There are many, many ways to combat the vexation caused by the lone and dreary, shich they did by continuing to learn and progress in life."
How have you seen or incorporated this in your life? How have recreational activities blessed your life? What are some activities that brings your family closer together? Comment Below!
"Young people in their recreations should strive to form a love for that which will not be injurious. It is not true that recreation only can be enjoyed that is detrimental to the body and spirit. We should train ourselves to find pleasure in that which invigorates, not stupefies and destroys the body; that which leads upward and not down; that which brightens, not dulls and stunts the intellect; that which elevates and exalts the spirit, not that clogs and depresses it. So shall we please the Lord, enhance our own enjoyment, and save ourselves and our children from impending sins... One's character may be determined in some measure by the quality of one's amusements."
- Joseph Fielding Smith
"recreation, which not infrequently brings the contacts which enable him to choose his life's partner, is supervised and directed under religious auspices, whose constant endeavor it is to clarify and define the ultimate goals of life. In the atmosphere of such spirituality, his spirit nature is nurtured and developed. His liberal participation in all such institutions and exercises is calculated for the development of that spirituality…. They should understand that pure recreation is not sinful and not inhibited by the Lord; that play is necessary as work is necessary; that both play and work are to be enjoyed; that service is the pursuit of most lasting satisfaction; that worship is the recreation of the soul." -Stephen L Richards
"There can be no genuine happiness separate and apart from the home. The sweetest influences and associations of life are there. We cannot be successful no matter what goals we attain in the material world, no matter what honors of men come to us; we will not be successful in our lives if we fail as fathers and as mothers. May we have no regrets. May we heed the counsel that has been given us. May we realize that even in this great land of America, endowed so richly as President Smith mentioned this morning, there can be no enduring prosperity and happiness in non-religious homes. The integrity of the home must be maintained. The spiritual foundation of our homes must be strengthened. Our homes must receive more attention; otherwise the outcome will be disappointing to all of us. More recreation and more devotion in the home will result in greater family solidarity." Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, October 1947, p.28
"Worship, education, music, drama, recreation, art were all fostered in our early history by the pioneers, and we do well in paying honor to them to emphasize these phases of culture and progress."
- David O. McKay
" Prepare to die, is not the exhortation in this Church and Kingdom; but prepare to live is the word with us, and improve all we can in the life hereafter, wherein we may enjoy a more exalted condition of intelligence, wisdom, light, knowledge, power, glory, and exaltation. Then let us seek to extend the present life to the uttermost, by observing every law of health, and by properly balancing labor, study, rest, and recreation, and thus prepare for a better life. Let us teach these principles to our children, that, in the morning of their days, they may be taught to lay the foundation of health and strength and constitution and power of life in their bodies." - Brigham Young
Now we are met in the capacity of a social community -- for what? That our minds may rest, and our bodies receive that recreation which is proper and necessary to keep up an equilibrium, to promote healthy action to the whole system.
Recreation and diversion are as necessary to our well-being as the more serious pursuits of life. There is not a man in the world but what, if kept at any one branch of business or study, will become like a machine. Our pursuits should be so diversified as to develop every trait of character and diversity of talent.
Discourses of Brigham Young
Brigham Young's division of the twenty-four hours is fair and moderate: Eight hours for work; eight hours for recreation, including eating, light home duties, Church activities and actual play; and eight hours for sleep.
"On every such occasion, it is right, reasonable, and necessary, that every heart be directed to the Lord. When we have had sufficient recreation for our good, let that suffice."
Discourses of Brigham Young
Students of social welfare recognize five essential factors to a normal, happy family life. These factors are, first, health; second, employment; third, education; fourth, recreation; and fifth, spiritual welfare…. Also it is very desirable that proper recreation shall be provided the membership that they shall be trained in spiritual things and become established in the truth of the Gospel.
- Sylvester Q. Cannon
"Trust in the saving power of Jesus Christ; keep His laws and commandments. In other words—live the gospel joyful." - Uchtdorf
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Hannah Whiting (2/19/22)
Day in the Life of TORCH family music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNuOHKn9BlCwYz4eimvvCEhG7bUaJNgqK
References:
Johnson, S. M. (2014). Count it all joy. Published by CFI.
NOTE: In the picture above it shows an example of a fun recreational activity! If you want to read more about it, there is a whole book about a family who took a long bike ride across the world. The book is titled "A Pedouin Life. Stop and Smell the Artichokes." It is by Bill and Amarins Harrison, with Cheyenne, Jasmine and Robin. There are some cool experiences for them and their family in the book! Totally feel free to look it up. 👀
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