I am not financially independent, even to this day.

Might I add that having this mentality in my life has made it 100% easier to not judge other ppl. Am I perfect, no. However, when I see someone doing something somewhat different from the norm I just think to myself that maybe the Lord has a different plan for them.

I don’t agree with President Kimball’s statement about career, marriage, and education. Neither do I agree with President Young’s statement about young ppl becoming a menace to society; at least not in the sense that it makes it this large black and white issue.

The reason I disagree is because WHEN(caps used for emphasis) somebody gets their degree, marry, or whatever has nothing to do with the doctrine of Jesus Christ. They are merely expressing a albeit strong opinion about their interpretation of the importance of marriage (a doctrine of exaltation). Rather I believe the leaders should spend more time emphasizing personal revelation and its role in good decision making so that they might marry the right person at the right WHEN and place.

An example of my displeasure is with my own life. My friends and I returned from our mission at the same time. He decided to get engaged and married within a few months. Every time I would talk to him he would explain to me how because he got married that quickly that I could too. I just needed more faith and to date a lot. I also received a tremendous amount of pressure from my institute teachers. All the while I had the distinct impression that I was not going to be staying in that city and the person I should marry was not there either. At the time that seemed ridiculous. However, a few previously unknown opportunities later and 2500 miles away and I now realize that I wasn’t so crazy as everyone was making me out to be.

The only right path is the path that God and that individual decide together is the right path. It is not for any other person to guilt someone into any choice. That said, I am not implying that our church leaders are bad, I have no doubt that they had the very best of intentions with their comments.

I see no difference between my mother who married at 17 because she prayed and felt right about it and a friend of mine who did not get married until he was 29 who also prayed an felt right about it and had already backed out of a previous engagement a number of years prior, why? because he prayed and did not feel right about it. I would just like to see more problem solving skills developed in the church than just “obey the commandment” as a universal solution. Imagine if Nephi had that idea. I can’t slay Laban it is one of the ten commandments; but he did because of the power and higher importance of personal revelation. (Please don’t misconstrue this as me implying that we go and break all the commandments, I am just saying that sometimes personal revelation will guide us to do things that are not always the “traditionally” right things to do.)

All that said it is nonetheless very important to make use of those single years doing productive things and not squandering it away. I am not condemning recreation because that is an essential aspect of health and wellness for any individual but I have friends who still spend 8-10 hours a day playing World of Warcraft. They are 23 and have been playing ever since I came home from my mission. I eventually stopped being around them at all because I wanted to make the best of the my time.

Sorry for the lengthy post.

As far as from the whole LDS standpoint, I was just re-reading this today in President Kimball’s Faith Precedes the Miracle about how many people tend to believe that the correct order of things is to go to school, acquire a degree, get a job, build up a financial reservoir, then to marry and have children, and so forth. But he says that the correct order of things is to get married and have children while you are going to school and starting your career. If you are one of those who just can’t find that right person (members of my own family included), don’t squander away that time doing wasteful things, but use it to do these things–finishing school, traveling, reading extensively and enriching yourself because, believe me, the time is much less available to do those things after the marriage and children come along. Just my two cents…

Thanks, Ardis. Now that I’ve spoken, I had better darn well deliver

As for the words between Ardis and Nick, that appears to have its roots elsewhere — but Nick’s reference to Ardis’s marital status did seem like a low blow.