THE SINGLE LIFE: MEET MEG (watch out boys;))
1. What are your goals for your future
family? Have you thought about any?
Yes, I want to establish spiritual patterns early on in my family
so that we can continue to build off of that foundation throughout our lives. I
want to establish a home where the spirit can dwell and where evil influences
won’t be allowed to enter.
2.What goals do you want for you and
your future husband?
I want to strive to ALWAYS have open communication with my
husband, I want us each to encourage us to be better in all aspects of our
lives, I really want us to be a team (equally yoked), TRUST, always
put God first.
3. Is it important to you to have regular
family home evening? Why?
I remember in my family growing up we weren’t always amazing
at having family home evening but I do remember that we had it enough that I
was this pattern and I want that. I feel like sometimes the littlest things can
give the greatest spiritual strength. It’s something I want to start even when
it’s just me and my husband even before we have kids because then it will
already be a habit.
4. What are some family traditions that
you want to have?
I think it would be fun to go on a road trip together once a year. In
our family we would have family movie night every Friday so growing up that
would be something we would look forward to so that's something that I want to
implement in my future family because it’s something really simple but it’s a
great way to bond and create memories.
5. Growing up, what have you experienced that would help your
family? What wouldn’t work?
I’ve always believed very strongly that the best thing a mother
and father can give their children is to love each other. Taking the time
to talk about hard things is a worthy investment otherwise problems just get
shoved under the rug and are never dealt with and that allows things to
fester. You can’t be afraid of communication.
6. Family dinners? Yes or no and why?
YES. Some of my favorite memories were Sunday dinners. We would go
around the table and share the best part of our day with each other. It
was a way that we could let steam off and laugh. I look forward to making those
memories with my family someday.
7. How do you want to raise your future family? Discipline
your children?
I’ve heard it say that “the best teachers let their students teach
themselves.” So in my future family I really want to instill gospel principles
in children’s lives but as they grow grant them freedom in increments to make
their own decisions and learn from those consequences, whether they be good or
bad. I also want my children to know that they can come to for anything. I
want to be the first person that they go to when they are hurt or confused or
alone. I want to teach them about the royal heritage that they come from.
8. What do you look for in an eternal companion?
I want him to put God before anything else (and then me… ha
ha!) I think you can tell a lot about a guy by the way he treats his
mother and I would hope that he knows his standards and never justifies
lowering them under any circumstances. This is important. I want someone
that can make me laugh. I feel like laughter keeps you young. I’m a sucker
for guys who love children. That’s a huge deal breaker for me.
9. What do you look forward to most in your eternal marriage?
Sex! (just being honest), living with my best friend, experiencing
pregnancy, the ups and downs of motherhood, seeing my posterity prosper,
flirting in old age *I think that’s cute ;)
10. Why
is obtaining an eternal marriage important to you?
It’s everything that I’ve looked forward to since I was five years
old, I remember doing the temple in a can activity in young women’s just
dreaming about the day that I could find someone who would be mine
forever. I love the concept of forever I don’t think that there’s anything
more divine. I think that level of commitment scares a lot of people in the
world but for me I think the idea of being able to spend eternity with someone
that I love is everything that I’ve ever wanted. There’s nothing more
romantic.
THE ENGAGED COUPLE: MEET KYLE & VAL
1. What are your goals for your future family?
I want to be a stay at home mother for the first
couple years for my child’s life because Kyle and I realized that’s important. Give
my children what I didn’t have. Make sure they get to go to every
activity, they are part of clubs. I have a goal of being sealed in the
temple so that my children can be born in the covenant.
2. Do you have any goals for you and your future husband?
We want to travel. We have a goal of scripture
study together every night. Listen to each other more. Making
communication a priority. Be as a debt free as possible.
3. What are some family traditions that you want to
have?
Mother goose tradition that Kyle’s family does. You
give each other gifts on New Year’s Day. It’s unique to his family so I want to
keep that going. Since being best friends our sophomore year in high
school we have gone to warehouse beach in Oregon. In my family growing up
we opened our gifts on Christmas Eve and then open our stockings on Christmas
day.
4. Is it important to you to have regular family home
evening? Why?
It’s extremely important to me and mainly for the
fact that I didn’t have it. I really enjoyed doing family home evening with
others on my mission and I thought “I want to do this with my family”.
5. Growing up, what have you experienced that
would help you with your future family? What things did you see that you don’t
want to do?
I don’t want to get divorced! Definitely not. I
really like how my grandparents have always, always been loyal to each other. I
heard in life that you should always be loyal to your spouse first. Even when
my grandpa was wrong, my grandma would back him up and of course apologize
later… haha.
I want to be affectionate in front of my children. My
family is not like that but Kyle’s family is and I really like that.
6. Family dinners? Yes or no and why?
Oh! Definitely! That was one thing that was constant
when I was at my grandparents and they were the best!
7. How do you want to raise your future family?
Discipline your children?
I want to raise them a home where they can be totally
honest. I want to raise them where they are not afraid to say them wrong thing.
I want them to feel safe and loved.
I would never hit my kids but I want to explain why
things are wrong. I want my kids to understand why they are in trouble and not
just tell them they are in trouble because that happened to me growing up.
8. What do you most look forward to for your marriage together?
Can I answer that honestly? … Sex!
Having a best friend forever. Someone that I will see
every day. I will always have a shoulder to cry on, someone to laugh with, to
watch movies with. I don’t have to worry about “Oh what if we break up or what
are we going to do next year” I’m just excited to have a companion… a forever
companion.
9. How’d you know that you wanted to be
together forever?
He’s been my best friend since sophomore year. We have
known each other since seventh grade and I’ve always wanted to marry my best
friend. We were sitting in the temple and he and I just knew. He had called me
up and said “Hey I want to marry you!” and I was a little skeptical and he and
I just knew that next weekend that it was right.
10. What’s
the best advice that anyone has given you as you prepare for marriage?
Sacrifice and compromise. My grandma told me that and
I was like that’s so right!
THE
NEWLYWEDS: MEET CJ & CORTNEY (Fun fact: They got married on my birthday. How perfect.)
1. What are your goals for your
future family?
To have all of our
children endowed and in the temple with us at least once! (And to have
children!)
2. What are some goals that you two have together as a
couple?
Currently, we attend the temple weekly. We rotate
through the ordinances.
We pray and read scriptures together daily. We also
try to always eat dinner together and go for a walk or something together at
night.
We also want to go on as many missions as we can later
in life (especially CoCo ;))
3. Is it important to you to have regular family home
evening? Why?
It is super important! It's also really hard as a
married couple because you kind of just stare at each other. We have used it as
a tool to get to know others in our ward. But we know it will be an important
tool in our future family because it will be where our children learn the
foundations of the gospel.
4. What are some family traditions that you want to
have? Or that you have already started.
We definitely want to have family prayer every
morning.
Cortney- I was from a family where my mom would wake
up the older kids (high school started later) to make sure we always had family
prayer. I always appreciated that.
Of course we have other traditions for Christmas and
stuff that I love as well.
5. Growing up, what have you experienced that would
help your family to be better? What wouldn’t work?
I loved that my parents instilled the
knowledge of who I was. I knew I was a daughter of God my whole life. That
defined every choice I made and gave me confidence before the Lord and the
world. I want to continue that.
More individualized parenting for each child
6. Family dinners? Yes or no and why?
We love family dinners and both came from a home where
they were important! It was great and is great to reconnect at the end of each
day. It's also important for us to have the opportunity to remember Heavenly
Father. It's not a coincidence that we pray over food.
7. How do you want to raise your future family?
Discipline your children?
Come back to us in a few years Hahahahaha. We have no
idea.
8. How would you describe “the honeymoon phase”? Myth
or reality?
Cortney- We were both trying to be realists before we
got married, but we still had a slight honeymoon phase where we were totally
obsessed with one another. It's a special time, but its better when you're out
of it. That's when you really get to choose to love each other. And you stop
thinking "Ohhh they're so perfect". You get to have a real
shot at a real marriage and getting better together.
CJ- I think its truth. It's a period of time
where you have no worries. All of your attention is focused on your
spouse.
9. What surprised you the most about
being married?
CJ- All of it!
Cortney- I think just how different it is living with
a boy who isn't your brother haha.
10. What’s the best part about marriage?
Cortney- going to bed and waking up with your best
buddy.
CJ- getting to wake up next to Cortney every morning.
Cortney- that's what I said!!!!!
THE BEEN TOGETHER FOR THIRTY TWO YEARS COUPLE: MEET
JORDAN & ADRIENNE (The greatest parents that ever existed... do I get money
for saying that?)
1. What were some of your goals for your
family when you were newly married?
Raise children in the church, my husband to
have good paying jobs to provide for our children, my children to have a
good education, live in a good neighborhood, and be raised in a happy family,
good experiences with family.
2. Why is family so important?
Side note: *started singing families can be together
forever*(more like an outburst). “We need people in our lives that love us
and that we can love”
3. What were goals that you had for you and your
husband together as a couple?
Be financially stable, Stay healthy (exercise and
eat healthy), always stay close and stay friends through communication and
living the gospel.
4. What’s the importance of family home evening to
you?
Time to spend together as a family. Night set
aside specifically to us. I remember when one of my daughters was older,
she moved out and came home every Monday night for family night and that
is when I really realized how important it is.
5. What are some family traditions that you had
when your children were growing up?
Christmas breakfast for neighbors/friends and watching
Scrooge on Christmas Eve, visiting family every year (we don't mess around with
family reunions), watch general conference together, Christmas time in
Philly, fourth of July fireworks at a park.
6. Why are traditions important?
It brings us closer together. They are HAPPY TIMES (for the most part).
7. Family dinners? Yes or no and why?
YES. Expectation to sit down and eat together. A chance to talk
and communicate every night.
8. How did you discipline your children?
Sometimes we did time-outs but not really
Jordan would take our children into the den and
talk to them one on one, lose privileges; we didn't ground our kids (I had to
remind her that that is totally false because I was grounded all.the.time.
OOPS)
9. What advice would you give about the married
life?
Make sure you pray together, have family home evening,
and go to church together. Have common values and morals, communicate- talk to
each other often, be best friends. Put that person first. Think about what
would make that person happy. Do things together. Talk (its super important)
look at them as your family. “Don’t look at them like oh, I can get rid of them
someday” they are family.
10. What’s
the best part about being married?
You have someone to be with. You’re not
alone. You have someone to talk to, cry with, do things with, and raise
your children with. When your babies are crying you have someone when you
can’t do it anymore hehe.
REMEMBER WHAT MATTERS MOST
