Family Crisis

I think the most important thing that was said in class is that all families experience family crisis. With that said I did find it very important to learn ways to prevent, when possible, family stress from becoming family crisis. I class we talked about the revised ABCX model.

I know we talked about it in in regards to families, but I looked at the model and I was able to see it in regards to stress I experienced a few months ago. But it wasn't one event that led to all the stress, but several events. One thing that helped me get through the stress was writing down the things that caused the stressed. I found that very helpful to define and face the things that were causing me stress because then I was able to find ways to cope with the stresses. It makes me wonder how families can do that, but I guess that is one reason it can be important to have things like daily family prayer and scripture study and weekly family home evening. Those traditions can give families a place to work together to define and talk about stress and together find ways to work through them. Not only that, but in class it was mentioned how family traditions can help families deal with crisis. Another thing that has helped me time and again is personal religious observance. Keeping myself as close as I can to Heavenly Father and the spirit has helped me immensely, and my family.

I enjoyed learning about the stages in the family life cycle and how a disruption to those stage can create family crisis. When I was in high school I remember learning about several girls that had been kidnapped. I wondered how that effected their families. One of those girls was found the next day, she was in my brother's class and from what I understand she was fine. The other girl was found several months later, that was Elizabeth Smart, and the other girl was never found. They don't know if she was killed or not. Even though the first families were able to repair, I can't imagine how the other family was able to adapt. I did hear they had a funeral for her, even though she was never found. Other things that can create family crisis is the death of a child, violence, infertility, and financial problems. I am thankful for the things that have helped my family through our crises.