Why Should American Women Have More Babies?

Families are stronger when couples invite children to join them, and people of faith are more likely to have children. According to Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, religion is important in solving the falling birth rate. Pakaluk is a social scientist and economics professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Tad Walch reported on Pakaluk’s presentation at a BYU forum assembly. Walch listed three key points from Pakaluk’s discourse: 

·         Religious faith is the counterculture motive for larger families as birth rates plunge.

·         Countries must prioritize religious values to encourage family growth, research suggests.

·         Belief in children as divine blessings supports higher birth rates among committed couples.

Walch summarized Pakaluk’s comments: “Governments suffering the catastrophic effects of plunging birthrates must light the fire of faith within their borders.”

“The highest motive is to want a child for the child’s own sake. Usually this type of motive is nourished by a living religious tradition,” said Catherine Ruth Pakaluk….

She said choosing to have children, and especially choosing to have more than one child, is a countercultural choice in America today.

Pakaluk published a book last year about her journey to conduct in-depth interviews with women who choose to become part of the 5% who have five or more children, “Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth.”

Pakaluk is the stepmother of six children (married a widower with six children) and a mother of eight additional children. When it comes to larger families, she knows what she is asking. Walch continued his reporting on Pakaluk’s remarks.

Governments around the world are scrambling as their birthrates plunge below the replacement rate of 2.0 children per woman.

The results spell big trouble, she said. Fewer children mean fewer workers, which leads to economic stagnation, sagging government revenue and more political tension over government spending. Those in turn lead to populism and nationalism.

For 15 years, Hungary has spent 5% of its gross domestic product on fertility incentives, but its birthrate last year was 1.38, Pakaluk said.

South Korea has the world’s lowest birthrate at 0.75, which is below the 1.0 rate at which a population is cut in half in a single generation.

The U.S. birthrate last year was 1.59.

“The total number of kids worldwide has already stopped growing, and the total number of people in the world will peak soon – in 25 or 30 years,” Pakaluk said.

Human losses mount, too, as children are raised with fewer siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, leading to “accidental” isolation that causes increased loneliness, anxiety and individualism she said.

The answer is to stop asking why women aren’t having children and start asking why some do. BYU’s Wheatley Institute sponsored Pakaluk’s research into that question.

Her resulting advice to governments is to adopt “a program of relentless deference to churches as the providers of a public good that nations cannot buy.”

She said political leaders should bring religious believers into policy conversations, learn their world views and ask their advice.

“Let churches run schools and pass on their values and don’t spend people’s tax money on things they find evil,” she said. “Give pride of place in law and policy to religious colleges and universities (because) they (produce more) young and fruitful marriages by every measure.”

Her argument is rooted in economics.

Large families once were an economic necessity. Multiple children provided parents with help, labor and support in old age. Having children was the province of marriages.

Today, children have been replaced by labor-saving and government support programs.

“Children are useless for the household,” Pakaluk said.

“The reason birth rates are really falling is because no one needs a child – and fewer and fewer people want one,” she said. “Like horses, children have suffered an economic wound. They’ve been replaced by other easier, cheaper, better ways to meet organic human needs. So the reasons to have a kid – the gains – for most people don’t outweigh those hefty personal costs.”

Today, people have children only because they want them. Some want to be parents, but having a single child satisfies that self-centered want, Pakaluk said.

Religious faith is the spark that causes women to have more children.

“Children aren’t needed,” she said, “but children can be wanted for their own sakes – and are wanted – by people with very specific beliefs about children, illuminated by the fire of faith.”

The women Pakaluk met wanted children badly because they believe they are blessings from God, expressions of divine goodness and a vital purpose of their marriages.

“They believe children are like health and wealth,” she said. “You can’t have too much of any of those things.”

Pakaluk said it is an empirical fact that only the highest motive of wanting children brings about above-replacement fertility rates, “because if every child is a unique, unrepeatable blessing with a destiny only he or she can fulfill – there’s no limit to how many you could want.” …

“The fire of faith is the antivenom to this economic wound children now bear,” she said. “The ordinary calculus of the world subordinates children to adult needs. By the fire of faith, our hearts are softened and our selfishness burned away. By its light we seek children when the world seeks comfort, we live for the eternal and not for the present, we discern in the cross the plow of new life.”

As Pakaluk’s remarks emphasize, America needs more women to have more children. An only child enjoys his/her parents’ full attention, but he/she misses sibling relationships. I am grateful for my siblings – I have eleven of them, and I miss those who have graduated into the next life. Also, I am almost jealous of the relationships that my children share with each other. I am grateful that they have each other to share the joys and heartaches of life.

What Treat Do You Give Out on Halloween?

In case you have not yet purchased your Halloween treats, Art Raymond has some information for you that could determine your selection.

Shopping data gathered ahead of upcoming Halloween celebrations finds one favorite confection continues to dominate for American shoppers while a few, lesser known retro goodies appear to be staging comebacks….

Recent shopping data shared by delivery services Doordash and Instacart show that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are the No. 1 choice in the U.S. this time of year for  trick-or- treat bags and home candy bowls, and it’s a spot the peanut butter and chocolate delight has held down for years.

Many may not know that the premiere Reese’s treat has been around since 1928 and was developed by a former employee of the U.S. king of chocolate, Hershey’s.

Harry Burnett (H.B.) Reese started making and selling his “penny cups” as a side hustle, leaning on a name that reflected how much he charged for the candies at the time, according to a Business Insider report. While Reese would go on to find great success with his candy innovations, his six sons sold the company in 1963, seven years after their father’s death. In a circular twist of fate, the purchaser was Hershey’s, which paid $23.5 million for the enterprise.

Hershey’s is the maker of another perennial favorite among Halloween candy buyers, its classic milk chocolate bar, while the Mars company has a couple of entrants in the top five including Snickers and M&Ms.

Doordash notes that other contenders have cracked the top 10 including Sour Patch Kids and Skittles, a sign that Americans may be turning back toward “nostalgic comfort in the timeless classics.”

About half of the article discussed candy corn and reported on a survey. I am one of the 20% who dislike candy corn a lot (like a lot 29%, somewhat like 35%, somewhat dislike 16%, don’t know/no opinion 0%), so if you desire to know more about candy corn, I invite you to link to Raymond’s article here. The only use I have for candy corn is to make jack-o-lantern faces on my sugar cookies for my children – so I may be inadvertently encouraging their production. 

Just so you know, I do not purchase Reese’s peanut butter cups, Hershey’s chocolate bar, Snickers, or M&Ms as my Halloween treat. I choose the middle road between candy and healthy snacks – fruit snacks. This way, I can eat any leftover treats!

When Will Daylight Saving Time Practice Stop?

It is that time of year again when daylight saving time ends – November 2 at 2 A.M. local time. An effective way to remember which way to move the clock is: Spring forward, Fall back. By moving the clock back an hour on Sunday, we will add more daylight in the morning. Daylight will begin again on Sunday, March 8.

There are two states that do not change their clocks twice each year – Arizona and Hawaii. Lawmakers in some states have discussed ending daylight saving time in their state, but so far, it has been only words.

According to an article by Caitlin Keith published in the Deseret News, the United States began changing clocks twice a year in 1918, more than 100 years. “The time change was enacted as a way to maximize daylight hours to help save on energy consumption during World War I.” 

In this writer’s opinion, the practice of daylight saving time is dumbest in Alaska. In the winter, there are five to six hours or less of daylight. It does not matter if the time is daylight savings time or regular time because the sun rises at about 10:00 A.M in Anchorage and sets before 4:00 P.M. Some office workers never see the sun during the week, and school students go to and from school in the dark. Alaska should stop going on daylight saving time!

Why is the Federal Government Shut Down?

 As I draft this essay, the federal government has been shut down for 26 days, the second longest shutdown in the 249-year-history of the United States. As can be understood, Republicans blame Democrats for the shutdown, and Democrats blame Republicans. Victor Davis Hanson shared some interesting thoughts on the reason(s) for the shutdown. 

Ostensibly, government shutdowns occur when the out party has lost power in the House and the Senate, or at least they can’t push through an agenda.

So, they feel that the only leverage they have, usually when they’ve lost the presidency and control of the Congress, is to not approve. And basically, that is not approve of any bills that are going on filibusters. In this case, the Republicans do not have 60 votes in the Senate to override their refusal to vote on the budget, so to speak.

Why are they doing this? Why are the Democrats shutting down the government when we have a history of these shutdowns?

And if you go back and look at them, usually one thing happens. That is, initially, the party that’s in the minority and has shut down the government says, “Well, they won’t speak to us,” or “They won’t, they don’t, wanna negotiate,” or “They’re spending too much money and this is the only recourse we have.” [Does this sound familiar?]

And that is a believable message, a persuasive message for a few days, but then certain things kick in, such as: I didn’t get my Social Security check. I didn’t get my paycheck. The air traffic control system is slowing my flights down. And the system slowly starts to grind down….

I think we’re at that point now where the Democrats are seeing a diminishing return on their investment of shutting the government down.

Why did they do this? The historian Thucydides said, for most disagreements, there is the pretext, the prophasis, and then there’s the real cause, the aitia.

They say that they’re shutting the government down because when they passed the Obamacare program, the Affordable Care Act – which, remember, was supposed to reduce everybody’s health care….

But when this program did not prove to be affordable, as everybody predicted it wouldn’t, when you rang a lot of people into the system that can’t pay for it, and you put these rules and regulations on the medical profession, something has to give. And that give was cost.

So, then the Democrats came back and said, “We need subsidies.” And the Republicans said, “Well, you said it was going to be cheaper. Why would you need government multibillion, hundreds of billion-dollar subsidies?” And so, they said, “We’ll put a time limit on it.” Well, that time limit expired or will expire.

And they knew that. They signed on to get us this far into the year by agreeing not to shut down.

So now they say the official reason is the Republicans are not going to extend a subsidy for the affordable health care…

So, that’s the pretext, but there’s two other reasons. One, in the general chaos of things, they think that it hurts the end party, in particular, President Donald Trump….

The other real reason that they’re not telling us is that the Democratic Party is in a doom loop. In other words, on all of these main issues – defund the police, open borders, illegal immigration, the trans sports issue, what we saw abroad, pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas versus Israel – they’re on the losing side, and they do not have a charismatic President Bill Clinton or President Barack Obama to carry them through in a nationwide referendum on these unpopular votes.

So, they don’t have the leadership and they don’t have the votes. And so, they’re looking for something to do, as I said, to cause chaos.

But more importantly, they have a reason why they don’t have charismatic leaders, and they have a reason why they’re unpopular. And that is the party has passed the establishment by. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, all of ‘em are ossified, calcified dinosaurs. And a young group of Mamdanis are running on issues that, while they may be popular in a particular jurisdiction or an East Coast liberal city, they have no residents nationwide.

And they will be running for office in the midterms. They’re gonna be challenging incumbents like Chuck Schumer. And they can win in this neosocialist, DEI, far left, Green New Deal constituency.

But the old guard is saying: They will lose in a general election…. So now, we’re going to shut down the government so they can tell the base, “We’re just as radical as you are.”

And who’s the loser in the final analysis? The American people because the Democratic Party, who shut the government down, is basically saying: We are Samson and we’ve got a hand around each pillar and we’re gonna pull down the whole thing on top of you.

Why Are LDS Youth More Religious?

My VIPs for this week are the youth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One sure-fire piece of evidence of the goodness of these young people is the announcement that the Church of Jesus Christ is opening 55 new missions. According to Stephen Cranney and Jacob Hess at The Deseret News, this news brings one statistical pattern into sharper focus. 

There may or may not be a broader religious revival among Generation Z in the United States, but “data about Latter-day Saint youth continues to tell a different story, confirming a deepening and expanding engagement with faith.” Available research shows that Latter-day Saint youth are:

1. More identified with the faith generally.

Nationally, religiosity skews toward ages, while loss of faith is disproportionately showing up more among younger ones. For instance, according to Pew, about 28% of religiously unaffiliated people in the United States are between the ages of 1825; by comparison, 15% of Americans who are religiously affiliated fall in that same age bracket.

However, the same Pew survey found that one out of four adults who identify as Latter-day Saint are in the 18-25 category. That means Latter-day Saints are about as old (and young) as the non-religious – countering the conventional wisdom that religion is an old-person’s game.

2. More likely to say faith is personally important

Additional research confirms that these young Latter-day Saints are actively participating in their faith.

Compared with 54% of non-Latter-day Saints age 18 to 25 in America who say religion is important to some degree (28% who say “very important”), 85% of Latter-day Saint young adults in the same age bracket say their faith is important (53% saying “very important”).

And while 27% of non-Latter-day Saint respondents say religion is “not at all important,” for Latter-day Saints it’s in the single digits (7%).

In another interesting result, about a third (31%) of Latter-day Saints age 18 to 25 say they have been “born again” even though that verbiage is not as central a part of the Latter-day Saint tradition (for non-Latter-day Saints, 27% say it)….

3. More likely to attend church

Attendance data from the Cooperative Election Study tells us the same story. Over six out of 10 Latter-day Saint youth age 18 to 25 attend church weekly, while for their non-Latter-day Saint counterparts only about 22% do.

This exception to national trends also stands out for high school age Latter-day Saints. Data from the Monitoring the Future survey analyzed by BYU Professor Justin Dyer found that not only do Latter-day Saint high school seniors attend church much more frequently than their non-Latter-day Saint counterparts, but millennials were just as likely and sometimes more likely than prior generations to say they go to church or that religion is an important part of their lives. For instance, Gen Z attended church as seniors more than Gen X Latter-day Saints attended when they were seniors.

4. More involved in religious education

Enrollments and applications to universities owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are hitting record numbers, with the broader Church Education System enrolling nearly one million students in its seminaries and institutes.

For the second straight year, BYU-Idaho’s incoming class shattered its mark for incoming students this fall. Every church institution engaging the youth is bursting from the seams.

But importantly, this education isn’t only happening in churches and classrooms outside of the home. The Pew Religious Landscape Survey asked American parents in 2024 “Do you pray or read scriptures with any of your children?”

According to that survey, Latter-day Saint children and youth were most likely to receive religious messages at home, with their parents most likely to read scriptures and/or pray with their minor children at 80%, followed by Evangelicals at 76%, and Muslims at 70%.

5. More engaged in sharing the gospel

Currently, 84,000 full-tie missionaries are serving among young members of the Church of Jesus Christ, which is 12,000 more than were serving in 2023 and 7,000 more than the year before.

Whether this flood of increasing missionaries will continue partly depends on the fertility shifts taking place around the country and within the Latter-day Saint faith. According to one projection, Utah is set to see a 6% decline in high school enrollment form 2023-2041 as it deals with the post-Great Recession baby bust.

Across these trends, one overarching theme is hard to overlook. Within a country where churches are often associated with gray hair, Latter-day Saints are bucking the trend – demonstrating clearly that religion is not just an old-person’s hobby, but can be  vibrant, living force among the youth….

Why Should Couples Have More Babies?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the foundational causes of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (or life, liberty, and the opportunity to own property.) Life begins at birth – but birth rates have fallen for America and for nations worldwide.

To save our nation, we must reject the culture of comfort and embrace the growth of families, according to the Blaze Staff. This simple fact is shown by data compiled by the Financial Times, which “reveals birth rates among progressives and conservatives over the past nearly 50 years,” something that does not look good for the left. 

Conservative birth rates have fallen, but conservatives are still reproducing at replacement rates, while progressives are barely reproducing at all.

“What we need is … a turning point, if you will, where we are not just going the same rate of speed as the doctrines of demons, but we are going in the opposite direction,” Blaze TV host Steve Deace says on the “Steve Deace Show.”

“And I think the enemy feared that leaders like Charlie were putting us on such a trend line, especially with their effectiveness towards the youth, and that’s why ‘they’ – demons like to call themselves that – that’s why they murdered him,” he continues.

“And now our hope is that like we’ve seen in the past with martyrs, strike one down and an entire movement comes up behind them,” he adds.

While the left, Deace says, has jumped on the “highway to hell and it’s ‘YOLO,’” conservatives are simply in the slow lane, still heading down the same road.

“We’re traveling the exact same direction. That has to stop. And I think in the younger generations, they sense that. The younger generations on our side…. The hope is we can last long enough to hand it off to them to prove it to us one way or the other,” he tells producer Todd Erzen.

“I mean, if you will not have babies and consecrate them to the Lord, we’re just not serious about the faith we claim to have. This is my lament about the people on the cul de sac and you really just can’t tell in any way a difference between, quite frankly, the families that are happy with the grooming going on and those who claim to believe otherwise,” Erzen says.

“You see all the time: Christian families talk about how expensive kids are. Well, all these families, if you’re paying attention, they’re going on vacation. They have their hobbies. They’re certainly not working, you know, three jobs, man. It’s a choice,” he continues.

“Our excuse-making factories for why our comfort as Christians is going to come before having children and having that be our primary legacy. Giving to the Lord human beings who will worship Him and carry the next generation forward in His name. I mean, it’s a choice,” he adds, “but good luck with that.”

Pollsters are not the only people looking at the decline in the birth rate. In May 2023, President Dallin H. Oaks, then-First Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spoke about making more babies to a global gathering of young single adults between age 18 and 30. The Salt Lake Tribune reported his comments as follows. 

Oaks, the 90-year-old first counselor in the faith’s governing First Presidency and next in line to lead the worldwide faith of 17 million, said church leaders are concerned about the tendency of U.S. citizens, including some young Latter-day Saint men and women, to postpone entering committed relationships.

“Marriage is central to the purpose of mortal life and what follows,” said Oaks. “We are children of a loving Heavenly Father who created us with the capacity to follow his commandment to multiply and replenish the earth.”

The power of creation is “one of the most precious gifts we have in mortal life,” he said, but “central to that gift is the law of chastity, the commandment that our powers of procreation be expressed only within marriage between a man and a woman.”

Delaying childbearing, he said, “means fewer children born to grow up with the blessings of the gospel.” …

“Our concern includes the causes, such as the shortage of homes young marrieds can afford to buy and the growing amounts of student debt,” said Oaks, still recommending that such families go “forward with faith, and do the best you can in housing market circumstances less favorable than I and your grandparents encountered in our early years. And, especially, work to minimize student debt.”

Sister Kristen Oaks echoed the words of her husband in saying that marriage “is a gift. Not only does marriage give us the opportunity for children, it gives us the opportunity and incentive to begin a journey of growing with one another.”

Both President and Sister Oaks encouraged young adults to date more and develop better dating skills. “For many years, the church has counseled our youth not to date before age 16… Perhaps some young adults, especially men, have carried that wise counsel to excess and determined not to date before 26 or maybe even 36.” Sister Oaks waited until she was 53 and then married then-apostle Oaks after his first wife, June, died of cancer in 1998 at age 65. However, most people will not be marrying apostles.

My husband and I are the parents of six children, a large family for young parents at that time. However, it is a small family compared to my parents’ twelve children. Only one of our children has six children, the other five have fewer children: zero, four, four, four, one, and six. Fewer children in the case of many families is not a matter of choice. For instance, our oldest daughter had difficulty carrying pregnancies, and the wife of our youngest son was diagnosed with brain cancer when their only child was one year old. I do not know the reasons for the other smaller families.

Among my siblings, none of us had twelve children, although some came close. I have an average number of children: three, nine, eight, five, three, four, one (adopted), six, nine, seven, ten, and five. From my experience as a daughter and then as a mother, I can see that families are becoming smaller.

My only grandchild who is a parent may have only one child due to problems with the birth of my only great-grandchild. My other two married grandchildren have been married for less than two years. If the trend continues, my grandchildren will have families with two or three – or fewer – children.

For both national security and eternal families, America needs couples who will have more children.

How Can We Improve Our Attitudes about Our Circumstances?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Doctrine and Covenants 121-123 in a lesson titled “O God, Where Art Thou?” The lesson was introduced by the following information. 

The bottom level of the jail in Liberty, Missouri, was known as “the dungeon.” The walls were thick, the stone floor was cold and filthy, food was scarce and rotten, and the two narrow, iron-barred windows near the ceiling allowed for very little light. This is where Joseph Smith and a few others spent four frigid months during the winter of 1838–39. During this time, Joseph was constantly receiving news about the suffering of the Saints. The peace and optimism felt in Far West had lasted only a few months, and now the Saints were without a home once again, driven into the wilderness in search of yet another place to start over—this time with their Prophet in prison.

And yet, even in that miserable jail, “knowledge from heaven” came “pouring down” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:33). Joseph’s question “O God, where art thou?” was answered clearly and powerfully: “Fear not …, for God shall be with you forever and ever” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:1; 122:9).

This scripture block contains several principles, including (1) With God, adversity can “be for [my] good” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:1-10, 23-33; 122), (2) True power and influence are based on “the principles of righteousness” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:34-46, (3) Jesus Christ has descended below all things so that He can lift me up (Doctrine and Covenants 122:8), and (4) “Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power” (Doctrine and Covenants 123). This essay will discuss principle #4 about being cheerful in the work.

The sections covered in this lesson contain good counsel, and the principle “Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power” is no exception. Joseph Smith knew that the Saints were suffering, and he was concerned about them even though his circumstances were not great. When he referred to false beliefs that led to suffering (Doctrine and Covenants 123:7-8), he wanted them to think about more than the persecution that the Saints were suffering. The Saints were being persecuted and living in terrible conditions, but they could change their attitudes about their sufferings by changing the way that they thought about their suffering.  

In his letters from Liberty Jail, Joseph Smith gave the Saints some suggestions as to what they could do about their situation: “[gather] up a knowledge of all the facts” and “stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 123:1, 17).

Consider the problems in our world today. What are some ways that you would address them that “lie in [your] power” (verses 12, 17).  We should not overlook the seemingly “small things” (verse 15). Consider how doing these things “cheerfully” could make the situation better.

Many of the accounts requested in the letter were “submitted to the government and published as an 11-part series in a Nauvoo newspaper, the Times and Seasons” (see “A History, of the Persecution, of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints in Missouri, December 1839-October 1840,” [josephsmithpapers.org]).

 

What Principles and Practices Strengthen Marriage?

Strong families begin with strong marriages and will strengthen communities, states, and nations. To have a strong marriage, a couple must start with a strong foundation. Rachael Pace shared four principles to build a strong foundation for marriage and twenty time-tested and proven things that will strengthen marriages. 

·         Four essential principles for building a strong foundation for a marriage:

1. Commitment

Commitment is the part of the relationship that provides safety and security, so couples can express their thoughts, feelings, and desires openly….

A key sign of a committed relationship is in being the person your partner needs on any given day.

If you need to be the strong one, be the strong one. If your partner feels needy, show up and give them what they need.

Be faithful, be consistent, and be somebody that your partner can rely on to keep your word.

2. Communication

Communication is the key to a happy and prosperous relationship. It is a very important part, especially where love is involved.

It is the act of conveying meanings from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually understood signs, symbols, and semiotic rules.

Relationship communication skills don’t come easy for everyone. Some couples will have to work on their techniques for years. But over time, they will be able to speak openly and honestly with one another.

3. Patience

Well, patience is the ability to tolerate or restrain yourself from reacting in anger or frustration.

Patience in marriage is fundamental for your relationship to flourish. To such an extent, that it’s one of the significant marriage skills….

4. Intimacy

Intimacy involves the expression of our most profound, and most vulnerable parts of ourselves, which includes our deepest hopes, fears, dreams, thoughts, feelings, and pain. These sensitive feelings are tough to express.

Real intimacy is vital to strengthen a marriage and keep it thriving. Without it, marriages may morph into routine, roommate-like living situations, which is hardly satisfying for either partner.

The need for intimacy in marriage is as important as the need for love and trust to build a healthy and fulfilling relationship….

·         Twenty suggestions for strengthening a marriage:

1. Get rid of “toxic” relationships in your life.

A toxic relationship is one that demands more than it gives….

2. Work together as a team instead of competing with one another.

… face life’s challenges as a team instead of competing to see who can handle difficult situations better or more often….

In marriage, couples are to complement and not compete with each other.

3. Encourage and uplift your spouse regularly.

To have a strong marriage, it is first necessary for your spouse to feel good about themselves….

4. Perform kind gestures for your spouse.

We all love to be pampered and/or spoiled by our loved ones and one of the best ways to show someone you care is to do something thoughtful….

5. Enjoy alone time.

As human beings, spending time alone is a necessity for achieving peace and clarity. Spend plenty of time with your spouse but don’t forget to take time out for yourself as well.

6. Adopt a pet.

Pets are known for bringing happiness to a home and can even help strengthen your marriage….

7. Plan a date night either once a week or a month.

A date night can be as simple as having dinner at a local diner, a picnic, or going on a short walk at your favorite place during the weekend….

8. Make plans that suit both spouses in the relationship.

… Try finding out what your partner enjoys and try participating in the same – your partner will appreciate the gesture and do the same for you next time.

9. Spice things up in the bedroom.

A “happy sex life” is ultimately an underlying key for the success of any marriage. Both partners must be fully satisfied in the bedroom and it is great to try new things or “spice things up.” …

10. Have meaningful and open conversations with your spouse.

Build upon your communication skills by allotting a set time for open discussions. During this time, nothing is off-limits and both spouses agree to only use words that are kind and never insulting; neither person can get mad, angry, or upset.

If this were to occur, the conversation should be closed and revisited during the next set time.

11. Don’t stress about the little things.

… Stressing about little things that hardly matter is not a good practice and usually emerges in a relationship from either partner’s obsession with those little things.

12. Reminisce together.

Reminiscing together can help the two of you reconnect and remember why you fell in love….

Reminiscing about the good times is one of the best ways to bring romance back into a relationship and strengthen a marriage.

13. Take responsibility for your actions.

… It makes more sense to acknowledge your faults and ask for help from your partner.

14. Leave the past in the past.

If something happened many years ago, don’t bring it up now. Rather stick to the topic at hand. An essential part of any marriage is being able to forgive each other and move one….

15. Have fun.

Life can be challenging, demanding, busy…. Despite this, or better yet in spite of this, it’s important to create the time and space in your relationship to have fun.

16. Show unconditional positive regard.

Show unconditional positive regard for your partner so they know that your love for them is not dependent on circumstances….

17. Talk about sex.

Don’t just have sex but have conversations about it. Talk about patterns, likes, dislikes, desires, fantasies, etc….

18. Accommodate each other’s needs.

Always be flexible; change occurs in every relationship. Accept that you can’t always have things your way, things are not going to always go as planned, or how you want them to go.

19. Learn how to manage conflict.

There are some conflicts you may not ever resolve, but you can learn to manage them by coming up with agreeable solutions, compromising, agreeing to disagree, and letting go.

20. Love yourself.

            For successful relationships, you must love yourself first before you love another. You cannot                 give what you do not have…. 

Do We Need a Requirement to Show Proof of Citizenship to Vote?

The liberty principle for this freedom Friday concerns a requirement to show proof of citizenship for voting forms. The current battle began with a petition filed by America First Legal, a watchdog group, “to add the requirement on the federal voter registration form. As most people could correctly assume, Democrat attorneys general oppose such a rule and Republican attorneys general support it.

Most patriotic Americans would agree with the majority of 353,000 public comments that were officially registered with the government on the issue that favored the requirement. Fred Lucas at The Daily Signal explained the situation as follows. 

“It’s imperative that only eligible U.S. citizens are registering and voting in our elections,” [Ken] Paxton [Texas attorney general] said in a public statement Monday.

“Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our republic, and every illegal vote dilutes the voice of law-abiding American citizens,” he continued. “We must require proof of citizenship to protect the voice of the true American people, which is why I’m leading this national coalition in supporting AFL’s rulemaking petition.”

My book “The Myth of Voter Suppression” documents how noncitizens and even illegal immigrants have voted in past elections, in some cases leading to criminal charges. Joining Paxton are Republican Attorney’s General Steve Marshall of Alabama, Brenna Bird of Iowa, Tim Griffin of Arkansas, Kris Kobach of Kansas, Chris Carr of Georgia, Liz Murrill of Louisiana, Raul Labrador of Idaho, Mike Hilgers of Nebraska, Todd Rokita of Indiana, Dave Yost of Ohio, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, John McCuskey of West Virginia, and Marty Jackley of South Dakota.

Their joint comment in support of the citizenship requirement focuses on President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14248, titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.”

“First, the current federal voter registration system fails to achieve the government’s statutory obligations and leaves our voter rolls vulnerable,” the comment says.

“Second, the current framework impedes state election officials from properly ensuring that only eligible U.S. citizens are permitted to register and vote in federal elections,” it continues.

“And third, President Trump’s EO 14248 is consistent with federal law. 

Accordingly, the proposed rule seeks to enhance the integrity of the voter registration process and ensure that only eligible U.S. citizens are permitted to register and vote in our federal elections.” [Paragraphing changed.] 

Why Are Democrats So Stubborn About Shutting Down the Government?

As I write this essay, the United States has survived through the twenty-first day of the Schumer Shutdown as the Democrats voted at least eleven times to prolong the federal government shutdown. Democrats also voted against funding the military, causing the Pentagon to search for enough funding to pay the service members. After the tenth vote, Josh Hammer published the following at The Daily Signal. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., defended his caucus’s latest vote, opining, “It’s always been unacceptable to Democrats to do the defense bill without other bills that have so many things that are important to the American people in terms of health care, in terms of housing, in terms of safety.” But to most Americans, such tendentious bloviating falls on deaf ears. Most commonsense Americans understand that there is no reason paying America’s warriors should be held hostage to arcane debates over housing policy.

As Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., one of three Senate Democrats who joined Republicans on Thursday in support of the defense appropriations bill, put it earlier this week: “You know, if you’re thinking about winning the election, now, that’s all going to come down to seven or eight states…. And a lot of things, the extremism that people turned their back in ’24, and that’s how we kind of came up short.” …

Why exactly are Democrats, who control neither chamber of Congress nor the presidency, continuing to insist on a protracted shutdown battle? It’s a more complex question than it ought to be. But the basic disagreement amounts to one over expiring Obamacare subsidies and the scope of Medicaid coverage – pertaining, to no small extent, to illegal aliens.

In short, then, air traffic control operations are suffering from a potentially dangerous shortage, America’s beautiful national parks are understaffed, and service members could go without pay – all, seemingly, because Democrats think more taxpayer dollars should go toward subsidizing the health care of illegal aliens.

This is an astonishingly weak negotiating position. Minority parties completely out of power typically do not get what they want during high-profile Beltway budgetary standoffs or shutdown fights, and there is very little reason to expect Republicans to cave. As the shutdown goes on, moreover, the polling on which side is more to blame seems to be gradually shifting toward Democrats as the more blameworthy side….

On the issue of illegal immigration, the American people are overwhelmingly opposed to their agenda. A Harvard/Harris poll earlier this month revealed that 56% of registered voters support deporting all illegal aliens, and 78% support deporting criminal illegal aliens. On the question of taxpayer subsidization of the genital mutilation and chemical castration procedures often euphemistically referred to as “gender-affirming care,” another culture war sticking point, another recent poll showed that 66% of Americans are in opposition. The polling on biological male participation in women’s sports is even starker.

Illegal immigration and gender radicalism are perhaps the two least popular issues right now for Democrats. Yet they are arguably the two issues most at the forefront of the current Beltway standoff – or at least the debate over the scope of taxpayer funding is….

 

Is Eliminating Root Causes Part of the Trump Causes?

During the Biden administration, Americans heard a lot about the need to fix the “root causes” of the problems at our border. Yet, we saw no fix take place – until the Trump administration.

Under the direction of President Donald Trump, the U.S. Navy has blasted at least five vessels out of the water off the Venezuelan coast, and a sixth strike took place in the Caribbean Sea against a vessel suspected of carrying drugs. The last strike had surviving crew members, which were taken aboard the naval carrier. 

Jarrett Stepman at The Daily Signal wrote of cracking down on “root causes” from another nation. Trump is “cracking down on the crime and criminal organizations that send waves of people and illicit drugs into our country.” He announced on Sunday that “he would be cutting off all aid to the nation of Colombia” and said that President Gustavo Petro was an “illegal drug leader.” Stepman continued: 

The State Department revoked Petro’s visa in September when he joined a protest in New York City and allegedly called for U.S. troops to disobey orders.

Trump continued to rhetorically hammer the Colombian government just as the U.S. military continues to hammer drug traffickers off their coastline.

“They make drugs, they refine drugs, they make cocaine, they have cocaine factories,” Trump said on Sunday. “They have no fight against drugs, and I’m stopping all payments to Colombia because they don’t have anything to do with their fight against drugs.”

It isn’t just Colombia that Trump has tussled with. He’s used military strikes to annihilate drug traffickers off the Venezuelan coastline while putting pressure on the regime of leftist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Maduro’s government almost certainly helped the vicious Tren de Aragua gang infiltrate the United States.

The president’s moves in Central and South America and the Caribbean mark a central and somewhat overlooked cornerstone of his national security policy. As I and others have noted, Trump appears to be reviving a sort of new Monroe Doctrine, where the U.S. is more focused on dealing with issues in the Western Hemisphere. Trump’s early moves regarding Greenland, the Panama Canal, and trade with Mexico and Canada suggested as much.

The fact that Trump has devoted much time and attention on securing peace deals in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere doesn’t preclude this. In fact, I’d say it’s a part of this administration’s shifting focus. Peace far abroad, containment of China in Asia, and stability at our national doorstep. These all seem to be very much a part of the “Trump doctrine.”

What’s interesting to me is that Trump is actually addressing the “root causes” that created the border and immigration crisis that the Biden administration allowed to burn out of control….

Clearly, enforcing border laws and deporting those who broke them is having a huge impact on the border crisis, which has seemingly disappeared. But the president is willing to go a step further to ensure that the long-term problem is further mitigated by focusing on stopping crime, halting the flow of drugs, and putting the screws on hostile leftist governments.

It seems to be working.

 

What Do Marines Do?

My VIPs for this week are the U.S. Marine Corps that celebrated it 250^th anniversary on Saturday, October 18, 2025. There are five branches of military: Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force. History tells us that the Army travels on land, and the Navy sails on the seas, while the Marines go from the sea onto the land.

Vice President J.D. Vance, Second Lady Usha Vance, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth traveled to Camp Pendleton on Saturday where both the Vice President and the Secretary spoke to the Marines. Olivia Pero reported on the events in her article published at The Daily Signal. 

Prior to Vance’s address, some Marines gave a demonstration in which they stormed Camp Pendleton’s beaches. The celebration included other demonstrations, including an amphibious assault, Navy SEALs jumping into the ocean during an amphibious capabilities demonstration, and more.

Why Should Classified Information Be Protected?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is classified information. No one wants the “enemy” to know their battle plans or anything else that affects their fighting capability. So, classified information was born. There are various levels of security for documents and other materials. Sixty years ago, I held a security clearance of “SECRET.” I know how classified documents are supposed to be managed!

Americans want their leaders to safeguard classified information because they understand that secrets are necessary to protect our nation. Recently Americans learned that a federal grand jury indicted former Trump national security adviser John Bolton “on charges related to the mishandling of classified information.” The charges claim that Bolton “shared extremely sensitive documents dealing with national security matters through an AOL email account that he operated personally following his appointment in the first Trump administration.” Jacob Adams reported the following information.

The 26-page indictment accuses Bolton of a total of 18 counts of unlawfully retaining national defense information and unlawfully transmitting national defense information. Bolton, 76, could face decades in prison if convicted of just some of the charges.

The indictment contends that Bolton “abused his position as national security adviser by sharing with family members more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities.”

Bolton, like other indicted individuals, claim that President Donald Trump has weaponized the Justice Department against his enemies even if they have to “distort the facts.” However, there are reasons why this man should be investigated, charged, and convicted if guilty.

Bolton became an ardent critic of President Donald Trump after he was fired in September 2019 as the president’s national security adviser during his first term. He earned a reported $2 million advance for his political memoir discussing his time in the Trump White House. The Justice Department argued before a federal judge that the book contained sensitive information that could hurt national security.

Bolton should have known better. Anyone who rose through the levels of government service to become a national security advisor should have known the proper protocols for handling classified materials. There is no excuse for Bolton’s putting classified materials into unclassified emails and sending them over unsecure means.

 

Why Is It Important to Use the Correct Name of the Church of Jesus Christ?

My Come Follow Me studies for this took me to Doctrine and Covenants 115-120 in a lesson titled “His Sacrifice Shall Be More Sacred unto Me Than His Increase.” The lesson was introduced by the following information.

There was reason for the Saints to be optimistic about their newest gathering place, Far West, Missouri. The city was growing rapidly, the land seemed abundant, and nearby was Adam-ondi-Ahman, a place of great spiritual significance in the past and in the future (see Doctrine and Covenants 107:53-56; 116). Still, it must have been hard for the Saints not to think about what they had lost. Besides being driven from Independence, the center place of Zion, the Saints also had to flee Kirtland, leaving their beloved temple after only two years. And this time it wasn’t just enemies outside the Church causing trouble—many prominent members had turned against Joseph Smith, including four members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Instead of focusing on what they lost, the faithful just kept building Zion, this time in Far West. They made plans for a new temple. Four new Apostles were called. They understood that doing God’s work doesn’t mean you never fall; it means you “rise again.” And though you’ll have to make sacrifices, those sacrifices are sacred to God, even “more sacred … than [your] increase” (Doctrine and Covenants 117:13).

This scripture block teaches numerous principles, including (1) The name of the Church is important to the Lord (Doctrine and Covenants 115:3-6), (2) Zion and her stakes offer “refuge from the storm” (Doctrine and Covenants 115:5-6), (3) My sacrifices are sacred to the Lord (Doctrine and Covenants 117), and (4) My tithing helps build the kingdom of God (Doctrine and Covenants 119-20). This essay will discuss the principle about the name of the Lord’s Church.

The book of Third Nephi in the Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ tells of the visit of the resurrected Jesus Christ to the American continent. He taught his gospel to the Nephites and organized His Church among the ancient Americans before ascending into heaven once again. One day His disciples “gathered together and were united in mighty prayer and fasting” (3 Nephi 27:1), and Jesus Christ “came and stood in the midst of them” (3 Nephi 27:2). He asked them what they desired, and they replied that they wanted to know the name that they should call His Church. (See 3 Nephi 27:3).

4 And the Lord said unto them: Verily, verily, I say unto you, why is it that the people should murmur and dispute because of this thing?

5 Have they not read the scriptures, which say ye must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name? For by this name shall ye be called at the last day;

6 And whoso taketh upon him my name, and endureth to the end, the same shall be saved at the last day.

7 Therefore, whatsoever ye shall do, ye shall do it in my name; therefore ye shall call the church in my name; and ye shall call upon the Father in my name that he will bless the church for my sake.

8 And how be it my church save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in Moses’ name then it be Moses’ church; or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my name then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my gospel.

9 Verily I say unto you, that ye are built upon my gospel; therefore ye shall call whatsoever things ye do call, in my name; therefore if ye call upon the Father, for the church, if it be in my name the Father will hear you;

10 And if it so be that the church is built upon my gospel then will the Father show forth his own works in it.

11 But if it be not built upon my gospel, and is built upon the works of men, or upon the works of the devil, verily I say unto you they have joy in their works for a season, and by and by the end cometh, and they are hewn down and cast into the fire, from whence there is no return.

12 For their works do follow them, for it is because of their works that they are hewn down; therefore remember the things that I have told you.

Jesus Christ told the ancient Americans that the name of His Church should carry His name. He said the same thing to Joseph Smith and other leaders of His Church: “For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (Doctrine and Covenants 115:4).

In speaking to at the October 2018 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Russell M. Nelson spoke on the topic of the correct name of the Church (“The Correct Name of the Church,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2018, 87).

Today I feel compelled to discuss with you a matter of great importance. Some weeks ago, I released a statement regarding a course correction for the name of the Church. I did this because the Lord impressed upon my mind the importance of the name He decreed for His Church, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As you would expect, responses to this statement and to the revised style guide have been mixed. Many members immediately corrected the name of the Church on their blogs and social media pages. Others wondered why, with all that’s going on in the world, it was necessary to emphasize something so “inconsequential.” And some said it couldn’t be done, so why even try? Let me explain why we care so deeply about this issue. But first let me state what this effort is not:

·         It is not a name change.

·         It is not rebranding.

·         It is not cosmetic.

·         It is not a whim.

·         And it is not inconsequential.

Instead, it is a correction. It is the command of the Lord. Joseph Smith did not name the Church restored through him; neither did Mormon. It was the Savior Himself who said, “For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” …

[After quoting the above listed scriptures from Third Nephi and Doctrine and Covenants 115, he continued:] Thus, the name of the Church is not negotiable. When the Savior clearly states what the name of His Church should be and even precedes His declaration with, “Thus shall my church be called,” He is serious. And if we allow nicknames to be used or adopt or even sponsor those nicknames ourselves, He is offended.

What’s in a name or, in this case, a nickname? When it comes to nicknames of the Church, such as the “LDS Church,” the “Mormon Church,” or the “Church of the Latter-day Saints,” the most important thing in those names is the absence of the Savior’s name. To remove the Lord’s name from the Lord’s Church is a major victory for Satan. When we discard the Savior’s name, we are subtly disregarding all that Jesus Christ did for us – even His Atonement.