Eyres On The Road

It is the Eyre's 52nd wedding anniversary today, and they celebrate it with us by telling some of the highs and lows, and by hoping that listeners don't see them entirely as old fogies but as real and candid fellow-strugglers who can shed some light not only on how great marriage can be but on how hard it can be and how rewarding it is to hang on and fight through the tough times. Help from a higher source provides a path when we can't find one for ourselves!

Marriaging is an active, grow-and-improve word like parenting, and on today's show, the Eyres expose 8 myths or misconceptions about the world's oldest institution and how false paradigms and unrealistic expectations of these myths can undermine a relationship. Most importantly, Linda and Richard talk about how each myth can be replaced with an "implementable" truth that will strengthen the most important relationship of our lives.

On today's show, Richard and Linda talk about how Family Relationships seem to come into closer focus during the summertime. The R's of Family Summers: Reunions, Renewal, Review, Re-think, Reveal, Revamp, Re-set, Repent. Summer is a time to re-evaluate our family relationships--not only with our immediate family of spouse and children, but with extended family members. The Eyres share their own experiences and give us some ideas.

In all their experience with parents globally and in their own experience with their own children and grandchildren, the Eyres have become convinced that the only real and lasting solutions to parenting problems and the challenges children face are spiritual. In a nutshell, the five spiritual solutions are 1. Remembering our Children's true identity, 2. Remembering and following God’s parenting example and patterns, 3. Remembering and availing ourselves of our Direct Channel of Inspiration from God, 4. Remembering and using the "scaffolding" of our Churches and Faith Communities, and 5. Remembering the Savior's Power. Taken together, these five spiritual perspectives on family can change everything from how your household works to how your mind works. On today's show, Richard and Linda share insights on each of these five Spiritual Solutions.

Is it best to think of God as a heavenly parent or as an omnipotent King? Can we have the familiarity of a Heavenly Father AND the worship of Almighty God? Today on the show, Richard and Linda discuss this question and ponder how we can apply the divine example in our own parenting and marriages. The Eyre's annual family reunion is about to get underway so the Eyres also talk about what will be happening in their own family lives.

Believing in Jesus as our Eldest Brother ties in beautifully with belief in a Parental God--in Heavenly Parents whose Eldest Son is not only our guide and our Savior, but the literal brother of our Spirits. On today's show, the Eyre's discuss this sacred relationship and express gratitude and awe for all of the roles that Christ plays in the "three act play" of eternity.

It is natural to try to emulate a parent. To those who believe in a Parental God, striving to be like Him is a reasonable and approachable goal. On today’s show, the Eyre's discuss a list of important personal changes that happen in one who believes in Heavenly Parents

On this week's show, the Eyres delve deeper into the perspective and paradigm (and example and model) of The Parental God. They read a "poem in process" that tries to tap into the kind of feelings we have all had as we strive to pray personally to a personal Father and to grasp that there is a She as well as a He and that They love each of us as their spiritual children. Poems can prompt a type of individual and personal pondering that may help us better connect to the Parental God

On this episode, Richard and Linda continue their series on the Paradigm Shift of thinking of God as our literal, spiritual Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. They do so in the context of improving our own marriages and parenting by pondering the ultimate, divine example; and they list the ways that this perspective can change our thinking and our priorities and our approach to each day of our lives. This podcast parallels the Eyre's current article series on Meridian Magazine.

Today, the Eyre's take the discussion to a higher level by introducing the subject of God as our Heavenly Parents who not only answer our prayers about our families but also provide the ultimate example of relationship oneness and wise parenting of all of us as their spirit children. Thinking deeply about this paradigm of a truly and literally Parental God can change our tolerance, our levels of love, our marriages, and our parenting.

Some would say that the title of today's show is an oxymoron. How does ageing fit with joy? In this episode, Richard and Linda discuss viewing life as "seasons" and finding the unique joy in fall as well as spring and summer. In all of eternity, we experience growing older only once, and we should relish and learn from it all, even the hard parts. Joined late in the show by their daughter Shawni (71toes.com) the eyres laugh a lot about a usually not so humerus topic.

As the Eyre's have discussed over the past 5 weeks, Joy is a deeper and fuller and more spiritual word than happiness. On today's show, Richard and Linda talk about the joy that can come in times of extreme sorrow and suggest that it is all hinged to belief in a literally Parental God, one God who is two--a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother; and that this belief opens up connected beliefs in a premortal life, in a Plan of Salvation, and in the literal siblinghood of all people.

In today's episode, the Eyre's expand on their recent theme of JOY by explaining that the very things we often think will bring us happiness--Control, Ownership, and Independence--actually suck joy away from us. They then suggest three alternative "rescuers" to replace the robbers with. First, replace the paradigm of Control with Serendipity, Second, replace Ownership with Stewardship. And third, replace Independence with Synergicity.

In this ongoing series on Joy, particularly joy in families, Linda and Richard talk personally in today's episode about how many kinds of joy there are and how many things in our lives can have an element of joy within them if we are looking for it. They talk about the joy of gratitude, of generosity, of nature, of slowing down and feeling the flow, of deep communication, of imagination and creativity, and of course, of family relationships.

The first book Richard ever wrote was called "The Discovery of Joy" and the current book that he and Linda are working on is called "The Parental God." The tie between those two books is the subject of this episode of Eyres on the Road. Richard and Linda outline Joy's four levels, the highest of which involves faith in a Parental God, made up of a Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother--and their unconditional love and our "siblinghood" with all other people.

Continuing on their mini-series of JOY, Richard and Linda focus today on how we can give and receive joy to and from children. They begin with one of their family maxims, "Joy is the purpose of life and a choice you make." Helping children to feel certain kinds of joy is the best way to help them repeat positive behaviors, and the "case study method" or role playing is one of the most effective ways to teach joy.

Today, the Eyres begin a new podcast mini-series on JOY. Ever since their first book, called The Discovery of Joy, and through their national best-seller Teaching Children Joy and the worldwide Joy Schools that spun off from that book, Richard and Linda have centered much of their writing and speaking on this wonderful three letter word.

This week, the Eyres return to the "stories" format and tell some experiences of what music can do for a family, of music lessons for kids, and of creating a calm atmosphere in a home through music. Linda is an accomplished violinist and holds a music degree while Richard is a novice at best, but they share stories of using music in their own home and give a few suggestions for parents and grandparents in making music a part of children's lives.

On Today's show, the Eyres talk first about the FAMILY.IS social media awards, which recognize the best family and parenting centered Instagram, Facebook, Podcast, YouTube, Blog and Websites, and invite all BYUradio listeners to vote for their favorite social media influencers at https://awards.family.is/2021. Then Richard and Linda turn to the concerns parents have about Pandemic Stressed kids of and offer ideas about showing empathy rather than worrying about permanent mental illness.

On this episode, the Eyres talk about an article from the Institute for Family Studies and a book by Joseph Henrich on how the medieval Christian Church snuffed out practices like cousin marriage and polygamy and changed society from extended kinship tribes into a society of nuclear families which create responsibility and community and promote economic well being. But the main blessing of monogamy, the Eyres say, is the intimate, oneness relationship that can only come in committed marriage.