Faith
Our faith is very important to us. In fact, it is the most important thing. We believe that the closer we are to God, the stronger our family will be. Not only do we believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, we try our best to live by them everyday. We attend church together as a family every week. We read the scriptures everyday as a family. We pray at every meal and have family prayers. We teach our children how to pray by themselves so that they can have their own relationship with their Heavenly Father.
Family
We believe that our family can be together forever so it's important that we treat each other with love and respect. We think family time should be fun time. We enjoy spending time with each other and with our extended family. We live close to cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles, so we have lots of family gatherings. Birthdays and holidays are very important to so we always make them special. We teach our children that it is important to always support each other and that in our family they will always find their number one fans.
Parenting
We discipline with love and teach our children to be accountable for their actions. They get privileges taken away and are expected to apologize when they have done something wrong. We try to teach them that making mistakes are just part of life, but that they need to learn from those mistakes and always try harder to be better. We are a very affectionate family, there are lots of hugs and kisses everyday. We encourage our children to communicate their feelings and not hold them in. As parents we aren't always perfect so we apologize and communicate with our children when we have been wrong. We also feel that it is important for our children to learn responsibility. They have jobs and have the opportunity to earn money for those jobs as long as they have a good attitude and do their jobs well. After receiving their allowance they pay tithing to our church, then put a portion of it goes into savings and the rest is for spending.
Marriage
We believe that the best gift we can give our children is growing up with happy parents, who are in a loving, healthy relationship. This requires work, but it is well worth the effort. We aren't perfect but we love each other deeply and want each other to be happy. Communication is very important in our marriage and we take the time to resolve issues by talking them out. We each have our strengths and our weaknesses. Thankfully we balance each other out and try not to dwell on the weaknesses. We make the effort to have regular date nights and we try to take a trip, as a couple, every year. We also support each other in our individual interests and recognize that those things are important. Ultimately it comes down to this, we have the same goals and values. We honor and respect the promises we made when we got married. Those promises are real and we know that our happiness as a couple, and as a family depend on our commitment to each other and to God.
Other important stuff
Service, Education, Hard Work, Integrity, and Self-Worth are some of the other important values we want to teach our children. Service - As parents we serve in our community and we try to find ways our children can participate in service. We believe that we are all God's children and regardless of race, color or religion, we should treat everyone with love and respect. We have volunteered at a battered women and children's shelter and we make bread, cookies and meals for people less fortunate in our community. Education - Education really is power. Going to college is a gift and an opportunity. We want to teach our children the value of a good education and to not take it for granted. Hard Work - The best things in life don't come easy. They usually require hard work. Instead of finding the easy way out, we want our children to be willing to work and do their best. Integrity- Integrity is an important quality we want our children to have. It's being honest with yourself, with others and with God. It's that simple. Self-Worth - Having self worth is key to surviving in this world. When you have self worth you will not settle, you will work hard, you will be happy with yourself and have peace because you are secure with who you are. By loving our children unconditionally, taking the time to nurture their talents and by teaching them that they are children of God, with divine worth and endless potential, our hope is that they will know their individual worth. We realize that the best way to teach our children these values is to live what we teach, so that is what we do.
