Families

So I'm staring at a picture of my family right now and I started to think about how much I love them. I am passionate about families. I am fortunate to be blessed with amazing parents who have been married now for 40 years and 8 incredibly good-looking, talented, loving, positive and FUN brothers and sisters. Yes, my parents took the phrase of "multiplying and replenishing the earth" pretty seriously and honestly, I'm so grateful they did. Oh sure a big family has it's challenges but it's through those that we've become strong. It's my personal belief that through challenges life becomes meaningful and beautiful. We are a very close knit family. We love getting together, just to be around each other.Of course most of our activities are planned around food. I owe this unity to great parents who never gave up, but mainly to the faith-based values they taught us and found in Jesus Christ's teachings. I remember the familiar routine we went through every morning before school which gave a young person like me a feeling of structure, safety and order in our household. Although there were times that we were better at it than others, this routine followed me through my high school and college years. It varied a little through the years but basically it went a little something like this. We would get up and start getting ready for school. Mom would usually be out doing her morning run and would give us kisses when she got back. I think I can still smell the mixture of outdoor air and her sweat as we embraced. Oddly enough I have come to even appreciate that smell as I think back at these moments. As we finished getting ready mom would cook us some breakfast which usually consisted of oatmeal, cracked wheat, cheese on toast with warm chocolate milk or some eggs. We usually were running a little late so she would bring it up to the top of the stairs landing and let us eat while we read from the scriptures, the Bible, Book of Mormon and other scripture. we then had our family prayer and were out the door. On occasion, especially if we were arguing she would make us do "positive affirmations" where we had to turn to someone, have some type of physical contact and tell them why we loved them. Oh this was the worst when we were angry with one another. It was so hard sometimes to think of something positive when all you wanted to say was that they were lame. But as we found something positive we felt a little better and a lot of times we would end up laughing. Just like the outdoor air sweat smell from my mom, these too have become a cherished memory with my family. I am so blessed. My family means everything to me. Now that more than half of us are married our family has more than doubled. We have six in-laws and 18 nieces and nephews. I hope that the Christ centered values that my parents taught us continues to spread down to the next generation. As we live those principles our family is safe from a lot of the gunk that is out there tearing families apart. Hurray for families!