Sacred Act

"We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred power of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.

We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its important in God's eternal plan."

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

The First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ 
of Latter-Day Saints.

Intimacy in marriage is sacred and to be shared between only husband and wife. It creates a special bond between husband and wife as they share the experience in a selfless and caring way. It can strengthen your marriage in the following ways: it is an expression of love, it facilitates a closeness to God as you become one with another in body and spirit, and renews the covenants made in the Holy Temple. Intimacy is a physical and emotional things to be treated with the upmost care and reverence. The more united you and your spouse are, the more secure your children will feel.

Communication

I think communication is such an interesting and confusing thing! In just a few words, you can build up or tear down someone. You can defuse conflict in a moment, provide comfort to a sufferer, or only deepen the wounds. Communication comes in many forms, including nonverbal (such as body language) and tone. But what is most interesting to me about communication is how differently we interpret one another's communication.

As I discussed in an earlier post about symbols, we each have our own symbols (or ways of interpreting the world around us) that we are familiar with. This may become a problem in our marriages as we communicate with each other. How we interpret what the other says (this is called decoding) may be different than what they really meant. Decoding is at least half of the problem when conflict arrives! Michael Williams, my teacher, stated that with those he counsels, most divorces derived from mis-decoding or misunderstandings. They were only misinterpreting the other's actions! We must be so careful to make sure we are clear in our communication and that there is full understanding of what we intend to portray to the other person.

Interesting fact: in communication, words make up only 14% of it. Tone is 35% while nonverbal contributes to 51% of our communication. Our actions alone make up half of what we are trying to say! This helps me to realize that words are not enough. How we just standing or looking helps hinder or improve my communication. Realizing this fact and improving this skill will help us become more clear in the ways be communication.