I believe that the family has been ordained and organized by God. Among his innumerable purposes for families, I believe we are meant to learn all the important lessons about God and his plan... the purpose for our lives. He wants us to have folks we care about with whom to practice the most important functions of a society.
Hopefully we learn about honesty being the best policy without lying and having to rebuild lost trust. We learn about consequences, both natural and imposed by parents who are our very first authority figures. We learn about leaders and how to lead and how important our example may be. We learn about love, like, joy, happiness, faith, hope, and so many other positives and their opposite.
As a tale from Tori... when I was about 24, I thought I had improved dramatically in patience. I just really didn't get angry much or easily. By the time I'd been married for a year or two, I realized how impatient I yet was. Another couple years, and our first child, proved to me in wholly new and amazing ways how far I had to go to become truly patient. Each additional child has revealed to me how sorely lacking in patience I really have been all along! So... as an example that is also true of many other things, family provides growth opportunities. Family enables us, when we are willing, to see into ourselves more fully... as if shining a light into the corners we didn't pay attention to before. It is revealing and ripe with potential for transformation.
Our family of origin as well as the family we form when we marry, potentially provide us with more opportunities of this sort than any other single relationship. Trial and blessing all in one... as must needs be since opposition is necessary to true and deep understanding.
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