Marriage Classes part 1

For the past 3 Sundays I've been going to a marriage class at the Kaneohe Stake Center. The teacher is Elder Brinley, a psychology Professor from Utah currently teaching at BYU-Hawaii. I liked him straight away, because his very first point was to quote Elder Packer, "True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behaviour". He said how many counselors often talk about communication and listening skills, but that if both spouses actively seek to understand and keep the gospel, it would make a better, more permanent change.

I didn't take notes the first 2 weeks, so I'll just try to recap from memory. One of the biggest things that struck me the very first day was his breakdown of how long we have been adult spirits. (We had discussed when a spirit enters a baby etc prior to this).  He gave a very rough estimate if you had a baby this year, here's how long it would have been a single adult spirit:

2011 years in the spirit world since Christ came

4000 years since Adam

7000 years for the creation

1000 years from the time Heavenly Father presented the plan to actually beginning it

1000 years from the time we were born as spirits to the time Heavenly Father presented the plan

  =

15011 years of being a single adult spirit.

That's forever! SO we are pretty good at being single adults. Then we come to Earth, after a mere 20 years get married and then all of a sudden we're experiencing new relationships - things we've never practiced before. We have only about 50 years of being married on this Earth, and in that time we have to do all we can so that in the eternities we can live together in Exaltation. He then pointed out that if we don't keep the covenants we make when we're sealed in the Temple, how sad it would be to experience marriage and children, only to get to the other side and become a single adult again! For EVER! It really made me want to be the best wife and mother I can so I can be with my family throughout eternity, because I know I've never been happier, and don't ever want to lose that.

Another big thing from week 2 was his version of how our judgement would be; interviewing our husband/children and asking them what kind of person we were on Earth. We would all have to be honest, there could be no lying, no matter how much we want to cover for someone. Better to repent now and forgive and be forgiven than wait till it's too late. 

He also talked about enforced separation and how important it is to do Temple work for the dead, the sorrow of getting a cancellation of sealing, because both parties are no longer entitled to the blessings promised them when they got married. The very real consequences of divorce/separation on children and the drop in likelihood of boys going on missions or having a Temple marriage from a single mother household.

Another thing he explained clearly was that in the pre-mortal world we were all spirit brothers and sisters, then on Earth we are flesh and blood parents who have flesh and blood children, and in the post-mortal world we will be resurrected parents who have children with spiritual bodies. 

That's all I can remember from the first 2 weeks. If I remember anything else I'll add to this post. Otherwise, part 2 will have the teachings from the 3rd week.