World Congress of Families Marches Through The Streets of Tbilisi, Georgia

June 13, 2018June 29, 2016 by Richard

World Congress of Families X happened May 2016 in Tbilisi, Georgia. This historic country with a rich family culture showed the world that even though it used to be part of the Soviet Block it has not forgotten it’s identity. They Georgians displayed their family and religious culture for leaders from around the world as they held four days of conference sessions designed to strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.

[[{“fid”:”163″,”view_mode”:”default”,”type”:”media”,”attributes”:{“height”:2752,”width”:4896,”class”:”media-element file-default”},”link_text”:null}]]

In the opening session religious leaders from around the world spoke in support of strengthening the family and praying for the family. Protection of religious liberties is always an important part of protection of family. This is a photo of LDS General Authority, Elder Kacher, saying we need to be teachable like little children.

[[{“fid”:”162″,”view_mode”:”default”,”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“height”:2752,”width”:4896,”class”:”media-element file-default”}}]]

Alexey Komov, head of World Congress of Families Russia & CIS, gave a stirring presentation about the exact steps leading up to soviet control of Russia, which parallel steps being taken by many nations around the world, but especially the Untied States.

Georgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilia II spoke as well about the sacredness of the family unit. Patriarch Ilia is the godfather of every third child born in Georgia. He has been through many national crisis and knows the power family has to strengthen a society. His encouragement to have more children and his willingness to become the godfather to many in his nation has increased births and led to more of a family culture in Georgia.

A Historic March For The Family Through Tbilisi

As part of the conference there was a march for the family from one side of the city to the largest Orthodox Cathedral in Georgia for a short service and blessing on the family by the Holy Patriarch.

[[{“fid”:”160″,”view_mode”:”default”,”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“height”:2752,”width”:4896,”class”:”media-element file-default”}}]]

[[{“fid”:”161″,”view_mode”:”default”,”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“height”:2752,”width”:4896,”class”:”media-element file-default”}}]]

More than 50,000 people joined the World Congress of Families and world leaders in this march to support the family.

Georgian political leaders expressed gratitude for what they learned at the congress and some even shared intentions to create legislation that will strengthen the family further and removed information from schools that will damage morality in their nation.

This historic conference was not without it’s protestors, but they were few in number. The conference was largely accepted by all and was even televised on the national television station.

WOW was happy to speak at this event and sends our thanks to the World Congress of Families who, despite constant attacks, continue to calmly and effectively strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.

The Right Way To Teach Sexual Abuse Prevention

June 13, 2018June 29, 2016 by Richard

[[{“fid”:”150″,”view_mode”:”default”,”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“height”:360,”width”:480,”class”:”media-element file-default”}}]]This year at the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women I got a few minutes to speak about the right and wrong way to teach sexual abuse prevention.

Teaching children how to be safe from sexual abuse is so important, but some people aren’t recognizing that some comprehensive sexuality education is actually encouraging sexual abuse in children. The Worldwide Organization For Women has worked tirelessly since 1977 to stop the abuse of women and children around the world. Part of stopping this abuse is stopping the sexualization of the planet through theory based educational programs such as Comprehensive Sexuality Education.

Daddies Who Slay Dragons

June 11, 2018June 19, 2016 by Richard

4 year old Avery Vidrine explained fathers like this, “They work hard, slay dragons, and love us!”

This 4 year old girl obviously knows what it means to be a father and a protector. She has seen evidence in her own life. Her mother, Emily, said that Avery sends her father off to work every day with the phrase, “Now Prince Charming, go slay the dragons but be safe!”

Avery knows her father keeps her safe from dragons and other scary things and knows her father loves her enough to go away from her each day and do all that hard work. Obviously her mother has helped her have gratitude and understanding for her father’s way of life. But as I heard Emily talk about the great trust her young daughter has in her father I wondered if Avery really knew what dragons an honorable father must fight to maintain powerful in his role as father and husband.

There is no greater example of strength than a virtuous man. Maybe this is why the media goes to such great effort to distract men from what is most important and will be the most fulfiling in their lives; family and virtue. Maybe this is why the media encourages us to think of fathers as clueless and selfish. These lies about the identity and role of fathers and husbands decrease respect and destroy hope in fatherhood. Additionally these lies don’t really make women look strong or smart, they make women look like oppressors of men. These false gender roles diminish happiness in family life and create confusion.

Husbands and wives, mothers and fathers are happiest and most fulfilled when they have put their priorities in order and they are deeply attached and involved with their families.

What Are The Dragons?

Daddies really do have to fight dragons every day. Not only are voices in society trying to undermine their existence and importance but these voices are also teasing and tempting men like never before. The sexual assault on the virtue of men is intense. Sexual obsession and addiction steals the freedom of men every day. When attached to sexual obsession men become detatched from family relationships. They feel empty and alone in a pit of addiction. This is a dragon daddies have to slay on a daily basis. It takes constant and diligent effort and a deliberate appeal to God and truth for help.

Daddies, husbands and virtuous men must also slay these dragons:

Media or gaming addictions

Work and money addictions

Waking up every morning

Scheduling life so that they have time or what is most important; God and family

Taking good care of themselves

Conquer laziness and entitlement thoughts

Live within their means

Keeping their standards high when others around them don’t

The list could definately go on and on. There are so many dragons to fight.

Think of your daddy, your husband, or the young men in your life who are training to become daddies. Look how hard they fight to become the men they are meant to be. Sure they may lose a battle here and there, but they keep going forward to slay those dragons again and again.

This year, on this this Father’s Day, I think Avery Vidrine has it just right about fathers, “They work hard, slay dragons, and love us.” She will be a great support to the men in her life because she knows they must fight hard.

Whenever I think of Avery’s description I am going to remember it like this; they work hard to slay dragons because they love us.

The Best Way To Slay A Dragon

The best way to slay a dragon and protect a family is through prayer. When the dragons come, a strong daddy prays. When a strong, valiant daddy sees dragons attacking his family and is children, because they will, he prays for and blesses them.

Fathers are often described as protectors. They are often more endowed with physical strength and stamina to be sure, but I think the greatest protection I have ever seen men give is spiritual protection.

When daddy stops himself from following the dragon that is after him and falls to his knees for strength he is using the most powerful self-government skill he has. Our loving Heavenly Father helps our earthly fathers to become the protectors the world needs when they unify with him through faith and prayer.

Personal Message: Thank you Spencer for slaying dragons every day and for being a warrior our children can draw strength and clarity from in these difficult and confusing times.

The Office of Fatherhood

June 11, 2018June 15, 2016 by Richard

In an era of social confusion, Father’s Day lends an opportunity to honor and clarify this unique and valued office. I use the word office because it denotes Fatherhood as an answering to duty by one who is fitted for that performance.

WOW’s 7th position on Fatherhood states:

We encourage men of all ages to obtain the knowledge, skills, wisdom, and confidence necessary to assume their role as honorable leaders, proficient providers, and loving husbands and fathers in their homes and families.

Fatherhood involves a voluntary trust between wives and children that institutions have traditionally and wisely supported even censured in its neglect. Centuries of wisdom illustrate that a weakened, frustrated, and confused society is the result when this trust is broken. Homer dramatically contrasts this idea between his Iliad and Odyssey. In the Iliad, there is the destruction of a whole society because of one infidelity. Its companion epic, the Odyssey, teaches that faithfulness between one couple Odysseus and Penelope preserved a society that was beginning to unravel.

While the man’s role of defender or protector appears innate, the actual making of boys fit for the office of Husband and Father is a unique male challenge and an art that is best practised by Fathers, supported by Mother. This transition from boyhood to manhood was not lost in Homer’s story either. He illustrates Telemachus’ difficult struggle into manhood in the long absence of his father.

As far as a Husband and Father’s responsibility of provider, I’ll use my own story, since the conquer and plunder method of Odysseus has become antiquated, thank goodness. I am currently a degreed stay at home Mom and quite content with my hiatus out of the workforce, and total economic dependence on my husband. In fact, I am grateful for my husband’s assuming his office as provider for the family. I spent about a decade trying to balance work and family, and found it exhausting, stressful and unbalanced. It actually led to health issues. I felt I couldn’t really give my best self to anything or anyone. The last fourteen years out of the workforce, commencing with the birth of my third child has felt healthy, natural, and balanced. I feel I’m better able to give my best self and feminine energy to the people and things I care about the most. I attribute this to my husband and me learning to live better within our complementary spheres. We’ve discovered Father in his office and Mother in hers helps to harmonize the home and is the natural ingredient children and societies thrive in. May God bless Fathers and Fatherhood that uniquely male office.

A Sign Our Society Needs Self-Government

June 13, 2018June 2, 2016 by Richard

On a recent plane flight I happened to open the magazine provided for passengers by the airline in the seat back pocket. In the magazine there was an article titled “Break Room” about these “Anger Rooms” that are starting to pop up around the country.

For between $25 and $75 a person gets the opportunity to smash a fake office, living room or kitchen. The company can also provide mannequins to destroy as well.

Donna Alexander, the founder of Anger Rooms said the idea is to provide “a place for people to safely lash out without any consequences.”

After reading this line in the article my heart sank. “Are we really living in this place?” I wondered. Do we live in such a brutal, out of control society that it would be considered good therapy or appropriate for a person to spontaneously destroy stuff or mannequins posing as real people? Is the next great trend for the modern world anger and violence? Are we that selfish? Have we lost touch with our humanity?

These Anger Rooms are proof of our society’s entitlement mindset. The business is based on the idea that a person should be allowed to be as aggressive as they want to when they feel an emotion coming on, and not have to follow God’s law of cause and effect.

It is a false ideology that people need to “lash out” in order to calm down. Sure, when a person gets angry and aggressive they release endorphins which cause a high and then a low similar to the high and low induced by exercise, but that kind of chemical manipulation isn’t calm. It isn’t safe either.

It isn’t safe for a person to feel like they have to beat something or smash something to gain control of themselves again. What could happen to a person who routinely visits Anger Rooms to “lash out” and then one day is in a town without an Anger Room? What could they feel entitled to do?

According to the employees of Anger Room in Atlanta the solution to this potentially unsafe situation is clearly more shops. In one video on www.angerroom.com the staff member interviewed said, “If there were an Anger Room on every corner, the world would be a better place.” In the “Hemispheres” magazine the company said that they have intentions to take Anger Rooms global in 2017.

It saddens me that there is a market for paid anger sessions.

Don’t forget that it was the villain in the recent Star Wars movie who lost control, not the good guys. Kylo Ren, dressed in his black cape and mask, repeatedly lashed out in anger with his light saber on computers and in entire rooms aboard his ship. No one was there. The property was his. He didn’t hurt anyone during those anger sessions. Despite all of this my son leaned over to me in the movie and said, “Mom, he is totally out of instructional control.” It was obvious that his evilness and out of control behaviors complimented each other.

As I look at the social and psychological steps we have taken in recent years to arrive at this new type of emotion-based Anger Room business, I see a society living a lie. The lie is that they see themselves as more humane and loving than ever before yet there are more bullying cases at school than ever before, more cyber bullying than ever before and more domestic violence and abuse cases than ever before. Is our society going more and more out of control? Are we living in a never ending violent video game? Does war have to be in our heads as well as on our televisions?

I am in my 40s. When I was a child most children still didn’t talk back to their parents. Now days I have seen children yell and hit their parents, even in front of other adults and in public places. In a recent Wall Street Journal article titled “Parenting in the Age of Awfulness” Leonard Sax said, “Children are immersed in a culture that stokes disrespect.”

What could be more disrespectful than a violent video game aimed at hurting another imaginary person for no apparent reason. And what about the way people talk to each other on social media and commentary threads on blogs? People are hostile and aggressive and this is seen as a sign of power. Text talking cuts out all civility in discourse. And, finally the interactions seen in television and movies are selfish and image as well as power based.

On the internet we preach of personal power but never preach of self-restraint. Accepting no answers is not an option in most people’s minds. This is proven when young parents ignore authority as they let their children run wild in businesses and public places. We are missing boundaries and no answers. We need self-government.

This might go down in history as one of the most negative articles I have ever written, but I think it is important to take in the whole picture. Society at large doesn’t seem to be filling in the missing pieces.

We don’t need places to lose more control and ignore consequences. Instead we need the source of true control, and to focus on positive consequences. Without consequences there is no good and no happiness as well as no bad. Good choices create good consequences and a happy life. We need to put off the anger, not feed it, and show the world how to find the real power and the real happiness by learning self-government.

The increased social emphasis on anti-bullying has increased bullying, and the increase of a variety of media addictions and disconnection from family has created more selfishness and violent tendencies. Entitlement mentality is at an all time high and respect is at an all time low. Even self-respect is hard to find.

The history of this social change and reasons why we are now in this violence mess could all be discussed at length, but the solution is simple and short. Roles. If parents and children understood their roles again the world would be different. No answers would be given when needed and problem solving would occur with the help of consequences. When people understand their roles at home they remain more free from the intrusion of outside influences upon their roles. The media would become less important and be used less frequently. The role of media in our lives would be considered more carefully.

I have noticed that parents who know their roles and frequently teach and correct their children are also the parents who analyze the influences coming into the home more as well.

Knowing our roles and understanding them is only half he battle though. We must know how to properly use them. This means we need to know how to do the teaching with principle and skill. This is why I teach self-government.

Notes:

Anger Room and Promotional Video: https://www.angerroom.com/

Hemispheres Magazine by United Airlines: https://www.unitedmags.com/

Domestic Violence: https://www.austin-institute.org/research/is-domestic-violence-on-the-rise-in-america/

Bullying: https://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-statistics.html

“Parenting in the Age of Awfulness” https://www.wsj.com/articles/parenting-in-the-age-of-awfulness-1450397051

Kylo Ren Temper tantrum video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaZ0L7aDx50