One of the toughest things we do in this life is to enter into relationships with someone of the opposite sex. But I’ll be the first to say that marriage is the place to learn. I always get a little anxiety when my kids start dating with marriage in mind.

Who am I kidding — I get nervous when they start dating — period. When you’re raising kids within the Mormon faith, you hope they make good choices while teens, and make good choices in their twenties, when they usually marry. Marriage is big in the Mormon faith.

But after all, they make the choices — not you.

I made a bit of a fool of myself with my first child when she chose her matey. You know, with the first you think everything must be perfect and you look at your own failures and mishaps and try to protect them from the same and then by the time you move along to the next child you realize no one is perfect, not even yourself. So, I’m always glad that my kids jumped in and decided to marry and have a family. It doesn’t make it easy, but it makes it worthwhile. I look back on my path, and I’m glad I took the road.