Being a parent is a huge responsibility. Parents have a bunch of duties like educating their children about the world, teaching them morals and providing for their children. One thing that I really noticed was how important it is to be an example for your children and act how to tell they that they should act. Being a parent is no easy job, it takes a significant amount of work everyday and constant self evaluation. Once you're a parent, always a parent. It's vital for you and your spouse to work together in order to be examples to your children and to not cause any type of opposition.

Money. People claim that's the number one reason for divorce; however, it is in fact just a cover for many couples. The real problem lies deeper, and since there's money problems they blame it on financial issues. Regardless, money can be tricky, especially in marriage. Before marriage, one is most likely used to supporting only themselves or have help from family. Once you start a family, you have to think of others before you buy and very often have to sacrifice your wants for the needs of others in your family, I've seen it numerous times in my own family. That's why creating a budget it so useful. It allots a specific amount to every category and really helps keep you on track. I'm not married or have a family yet, but I created a budget while I'm up here at BYU-I for college and it's been a huge help. My mom testified how much having a budget has helped my family, even though money has always been tight. I know that being smart with our money is important and Heavenly Father doesn't want us to be wasteful what He provides for us.

Communication is a vital part of any and every relationship. It can take a long time to build good communication, but like the cliche says, "Communication is key." I dated an amazing guy for a couple years before he left of his mission. At first, our communication was horrible and although we didn't fight, we didn't have a strong relationship. It took some time, but once we got our communication down, our relationship seemed perfect in every way; everything else fell into place. 

There are going to be stressful times throughout our lives, there's nothing we can do to avoid that. We can control how we react to those stressors though. Instead of letting stress tear our families apart, we can actively use them to pull together. It's cool to look back after stressful events happen to see how you've overcome the challenge and how you've grown from them. 

Call me old fashioned, but I'm a "wait until marriage" type of girl. In today's society it almost seems like a competition to see who can sleep with the most amount of people. What's special about that? What separates any of those from marriage? When you get married, you and your spouse become a union, become one. Sex only deepens that bond and unites each other further. 
Marriage calls for an ultimate type of trust, trust that your spouse will always be there for you, you can depend on each other and that your partner will not have an affair. Keeping yourself for your spouse helps prevent that from happening and will strengthen your marriage because you know both of you have given each other yourself completely.