Cleave Unto Your Spouse

            It's been a long time since I posted on this blog. So first, just a quick update on life. I starting dating my husband on Sept 23rd, 2017 and partially have this blog to thank. It was reading of my struggles and path to baptism that really moved him (he's a convert too) to want to get to know me better and decide to ask me out. We got engaged on March 28, 2018, and sealed in the temple on July 28th, 2018.

            I've gotten back into studying marriage but this time I am studying marriage through the Gospel lens rather than from a more secular perspective. Learning more about what Heavenly Father and our Savior want for us in marriage. This week I was studying Matthew and when I read Matthew 19 several verses stood out to me:

5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

7 They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?

8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

            This made me think about what cleaving really means. Cleaving unto something implies an action, not the passivity that seems acceptable to the world. If we are to fulfill our temple covenants, then we must actively be seeking after, loving and caring for our spouse. This really resonated with me for both personal and professional reasons. I am attending college with the goal of becoming a therapist who works with foster children and their families. I want to strengthen my own marriage by cleaving to my husband. We are focused on putting each others needs first and being united in our response to anything that affects our family. We will always be our parents’ children but that bond no longer comes first as we are now the Diazes, a new little family in its own right. I think that as we strive to put each other first and heed the Lord's counsel, we will strengthen our marriage and develop a solid foundation upon which we can begin to build our next generation. Multiple studies have shown that children who are raised in a home with a mother and father who care deeply for one another as well as for the children generally have much better outcomes than children raised by parents who are disaffected or, worse, hostile to one another. By cleaving unto our spouses, we will be better equipped to be the parents that the Lord would have us be. And I feel that as I practice cleaving in my personal life, I will be better equipped to