Yesterday, I pulled out my "Eternal Marriage" textbook from a class I took at BYU several years ago. It's full of teachings from our latter-day prophets about different aspects of marriage - from communication, to finances, abuse, education, parenthood, priorities, trust, unity, women's and men's divine roles and responsibilities ...
I'm thankful my marriage is good. I'm thankful most of my friends' marriages are good. And they're made better when people live by these Gospel-inspired principles - even when the couple doesn't happen to be Mormon. Unselfishness in marriage? Duh. Kids get along better when there's a parent at home to listen and help? Life is less stressful when you responsibly manage your finances and live within your means?
Really, we need prophetic counsel to get this through our heads? It's not obvious and self-explanatory? Really? Apparently we really do. There are so many voices in the world pulling us in different directions and it's easy to get confused when sifting through all of the information.
Anywho. Lately I've been better about studying my scriptures and praying and trying to figure out what the Lord wants me to be and do. It's brought me, personally, a lot of peace. It's also made me realize that there are plenty of greedy and selfish feelings I have that I need to let go of. When I get caught up in worldly philosophies, I start getting wrapped up in myself and it makes me miserable.
Anyway. I don't know where I'm going with any of those thoughts. I need the Gospel in my life. Although I've technically been "active" my whole life (I've always gone to church, fulfilled my responsibilities in my callings, been temple worthy, etc) there have been times when I've said to myself, "I can live a good life and be a happy person without having to do all of this Gospel studying stuff ..." and have fallen short on studying my scriptures daily and praying and truly relying on the Lord. I've been prideful. I've lost my humility and teachability because I know I'm always right and I know the right thing to do. ;) You lose that spirituality and that peace a little bit at a time. You don't realize it's missing, until one day you have an epiphany and the Spirit comes back and it's like a breath of fresh air and you go, "Oh, wow, suddenly I can breathe again. I didn't know I was holding my breath and about to faint!"
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