Family and Culture

 Are there any links between the way a family behaves and the culture??

This is the type of question that people will ponder for a second before answering because it entails people sharing their thoughts or sometimes their life experience with the topic. Personally, I believe that they could be a link or relationship between our culture and our family. 

Let’s try to define a culture. I will define a culture as a group of values, language, language leading factors in who we are and how we act. A culture can influence us to act a certain way without sometimes noticing it because we have got used to it, and we come to a clash whenever we meet someone who acts differently as we do. For example, in my culture, it is not appropriate to burp whenever we are eating with other people. People will get mad at you and tell you how nasty it is to do something like that.

During my missionary experience, my companion was burping all the time whenever we were eating dinner. I explained to him what it meant in my culture and how we see it because at first I was a little annoyed. He explained to me that it was normal to act like that where he came from and doing so was a way of saying that the food was delicious. I came to understand that it is okay to be annoyed with other people's culture, but it is not fair to judge them negatively. Our environmental culture can influence the way we act, and it could be both positive and negative.

A friend of mine lived in a place where his church culture influenced the actions of the people living there. He told me that many people where he lived believed that all young adults should get married between the age of 18 and 25 and that it was a mistake to not meet these standards. He continued saying that many young adults felt trapped and got married without really knowing the sacrifices of marriage. Even though it is a good thing to get married soon, the data collected tells us that divorce among young adults is around 60%, and it is alarming. People sometimes accept without questioning why they have this specific role to follow, instead see it as something valuable.

I am not judging the fact that it is okay to agree with our cultures, but am I trying to point out the fact that culture could have a negative impact on us. To avoid criticism I will not be mentioning the name of the people but in their culture and because of the influence of religion it is not for girls to go to school and have the same jobs as because the main tasks of a woman should be to take care of her family and husband. Maybe people will agree with the opposite thoughts, but from my perspective, I think that education should to everyone be accessible regarding everyone regard to regards of race, gender, or culture.

Culture can also impact families positively by teaching its members good life principles and how to love and take care of each other. In Christianity, we have a great example of a Leader who taught his followers the culture of loving, sharing, supporting and assisting each other and even their neighbors. His name was Jesus Christ. We learned from the scriptures that he gave his life so that all of us could be saved and have eternal life after we die. A lesson that he taught all of his disciples was to live a life focused on helping other people.

To conclude, I can say that our culture does have an impact on us, but we should make sure to follow the positive aspect of it.