Communication

Last week in class we discussed communication. My teacher pointed out that communication comes from three different things: words, non verbals and tones. 14% of communication comes from words, 35% of communication comes from non-verbals (body language) and 51% of communication comes from tone. Now we live in a world with advance technology. Technology can be a really great tool. It can connect us to friends that live far away. But looking at communication how my teacher pointed out, there is so much communication lost when we send a text rather than have a conversation face to face. Through a text, all we are communicating by is words. The receiver of our texts can't hear the tone we would say it in, or our body language to go along with it. I think that is why texts can be so misinterpreted. After learning about this, I decided that I should spend less time texting and more time either talking face to face or speaking on the phone. I challenge everyone to try to do the same and see how your conversations improve.

Stress in the Family

The definition of crisis that my teacher gave in class was "Crisis- danger together with opportunity". I personally think that is a great definition of the word, because yes crisis can inflict stress and danger to a family but there are also opportunities that can come out of it. Say for example a father loses his job. This puts the family in a situation of crisis, but from that crisis, the father could be able to spend more time with his children, or find a better fitting job. Those are just a couple of examples of opportunities that can come out of a crisis like that. I think in a situation of crisis in the family, it is important to stay positive and focus on those opportunities instead of letting the stress overtake you.

Marriage

Being faithful to a spouse means way more than just not committing adultery. There are many ways that a spouse could be unfaithful. Those ways are fantasy, visual, romantic, and sexual. Fantasy is having an emotional affair with someone who doesn't know that is taking place. It is all in the mind or on the internet. Visual affair can be compared to looking at porn. A romantic affair is when someone becomes emotionally involved with someone other than their spouse. It can be compared to as a "Second Life". I think it is pretty clear as to what a sexual affair is. Something a spouse can do to prevent infidelity in the marriage is by being "fiercely loyal". One must remain loyal and truthful to their spouse at all times in order to have a faithful marriage.

Marriage

Today, more and more people are questioning if they need to get married in order to receive the same benefits a married couple would. The highest rates of people getting married are well-educated Caucasian or Asian people with a good income. We learned that the more educated someone is, they are more likely to get married because they have a higher confidence that a marriage will work. We also learned the importance of a couple planning their wedding together because it is really the first major decisions that the couple will have to make as a couple. Before getting married, it is important to discuss boundaries and how you as a couple plan on living your life together. A good marriage needs good communication.

Dating

In class, we talked about dating and how it has changed dramatically over the years. Now a days, a lot of people are fine with the concept of "hang out, make out, drop out". In class we went over the "P's" of a date. A date is planned, paid for, and paired off. Something we also went over was The "Know-Quo" by J. Van Epp. It takes combines three aspects when added together you can consider "knowing" the person you are dating. Those three things are: Talk (mutual self-disclosure), Togetherness (sharing a wide range of activities) and Time. I really like that model because when you are able to talk to someone and share personal things with them and trust them, it can really build a relationship. Also doing stuff together is big. There are so many things that a couple can do together like walks, going to the store, even homework. Finally it is important that you get to know each other over a period of time. A good relationship can't just happen overnight. It takes work.