The Hales & Their Angels

Monday, October 13, 2014

Hales Family Taste Testing

I remember as a child doing a taste testing for Family Home Evening. So, today, that is what I did for our activity.

We tested between a name brand and Wal-Mart's Great Value in chips, cheese crackers, vanilla waffer cookies and root beer.

So, Andrea and the kids were blind folded and tasted both options.

After all the food was eaten the winner on almost all of the items was Great Value. Andrea liked the Nilla Waffers better, but the rest of us like Wal-Mart.

It was a good-time and combined the activity and snacks for FHE>

Thursday, August 07, 2014

When Love Fails...look to God

I came up with the advertising phrase "When love fails, call attorney Mark Hales." (I also use as an alternative, "When the condom fails, call attorney Mark Hales." I think these are funny and clever, especially here in Utah.)

Some days it is hard to be a divorce lawyer due to all the drama. Today, I was approached by a former client's mother who asked me how I maintain my faith in God while I work as a divorce lawyer. She was struggling because of all of the drama of her son's case.

I told her that being a divorce attorney has actually strengthened my faith. She was a little shocked by this. I said that being by a divorce lawyer I see the general patterns of divorcing couples compared to those that are not getting divorced.

What have I learned over years as a divorce lawyer? I have learned that people get divorced because they are unhappy. Yes, I know that is shocking. For the past 7 years, I have not had any client (or prospective client) want a divorce who was happy in his marriage. From my observations these couples are unhappy because they are not following God's instructions in how to have a happy marriage.

God has provided marriage principles because the "the Family is ordained of God." We come from an eternal family and come to earth to create a family so that we can live eternally as a family. For eternal families to work it must be based on "a marriage between man and woman" so that children receive their entitled right to be born "within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity."

Because family is essential to God's "work and glory" in bringing about the "exaltation and eternal life" of each person (Moses 1:39) he wants us to each have a happy marriage. God has told to have a happy marriage we keep his commandments. "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ." Specifically, "successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

There has not been any person I have met, man or woman, that has wanted a divorce when they followed these basic principles of happiness. If these principles are not followed, then people become prideful and no longer feel "obligated to help one another as equal partners."

On the other hand, when couples love and serve each other, maintain faith in each other and in God, study the scriptures together, pray together, forgive each other, work together side-by-side as equals, and continue to court each other their marriage will be preserved and grow exponentially.

So, no, ma'am, I have not lost my faith by being a divorce lawyer. In actuality, my faith in God has grown.

(All quotes found from The Family: A Proclaim to the World)