I Love Marriage
By Alan on May 19 in Blog tagged commitment, complement, Family, Father, fidelity, husband, Linda and Richard Eyre, love, man, marriage, married, mother, oneness, priesthood power, procreative power, relationship, stewardship, together, ways, wife, woman | No Comments
I Love Marriage.
A short essay on Linda, love and being a husband by Richard Eyre
I love mariage. I love everything about marriage, even the disagreements and tough times. I love having someone with whom I share everything and who knows everything about me, sometimes things I don’t even know myself.
I love partnership with my wife, full and total partnership where we literally try to share everything, even bank accounts, even our emails, even everything; and where there are no secrets, even little ones.
Neither of us is anything remotely close to perfect, and neither is our relationship, but I love the synergy of that and how all of my weaknesses seem to be made up and compensated for by Linda’s strength, and where, on our best days, our total is greater than the sum of its parts.
I love that we each have our own ways of doing things, very different ways that, again on our good days, complement each other and make possible things that neither of us could do on our own.
I have come to acknowledge and partially understand that Linda is, like all women, a complex organism and that if you try to change one little thing or one little part of her you might set off some kind of chain reaction that would alter the whole and end up changing the very things you love most about her. Therefore, I tell her, in total honesty, that I would not change one little thing about her. I have told her that so much, and explained the reasoning behind it, that I think she finally believes me.
I love the word “husband.” It means stewardship, it means care, it means cherishing and taking care of. But I think it also means partnership — the kind with complete respect and unbending commitment and fidelity.
I love that Linda’s role in our family is the most important one — that her instinctive and intuitive love of our children has guided their lives more than any other thing and that the title of “Mother” truly is the most important and influential and indispensable and irreplaceable role on this planet.
I love the fact that we share both the procreative power and the priesthood power — that neither can be fully or fruitfully used by one of us without the other. I love that Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve said in his recent conference talk that just as a woman cannot have a child without a man, so a man cannot fully and eternally use the priesthood without the woman.
I love the poetic quality of that statement — that both procreative power and priesthood power must be shared between a celestially married man and woman.
I love that an individual man or an individual woman is not a perfectible entity, but that a man and woman together are.
I even love what Benjamin Franklin said — that a single man is like a half a pair of scissors. And I love the gospel knowledge that tells us that every one of God’s children, whether on this earth or hereafter, will have the opportunity of everlasting marriage and oneness and family glory.
Oh, by the way, and in case you couldn’t tell, I love Linda.
Note: Richard and Linda Eyre are New York Times No. 1 best-selling authors who lecture throughout the world on family-related topics. Visit them anytime at www.EyresFreeBooks.com or at www.valuesparenting.com.
For The Family
Happy Birthday & Happy Mother’s Day – Suzanne Osmond
By Alan on May 11 in Blog tagged 60, creator, love, married, mother, Mother's Day, Osmonds, Second Generation, Suzanne Pinegar Osmond, wife, years | 1 Comment
Happy Birthday & Happy Mother’s Day
Suzanne Osmond
Today, May 11, 2013, is Suzanne Pinegar Osmond’s Birthday. We are celebrating her 60th Birthday and tomorrow, Mother’s Day!
Suzanne married Alan R. Osmond on July 16, 1974 and together had eight sons; Michael, Nathan, Douglas, David, Scott, Jon, Alex & Tyler Osmond.
All of their eight boys are eagle scouts. All are married except for Tyler and have blessed Suzanne and Alan with twenty three grandchildren with #23 yet to be born the end of June.
Nathan Osmond, our second son is an amazing song writer entertainer and musician, director as well as producer who made this video as a surprise for Suzanne’s special dinner we all are having tonight.
Suzanne is a special and wonderful Mother and wife and is so dedicated to her husband Alan, her children as a mother, and to her grandchildren, as a grandmother.
We all wish Suzanne a Happy Birthday and Mother’s day along with all the other Moms around the world who take most seriously their role as a wives, a mothers and creators of life, who love and nurture God’s children here on earth.
The Osmonds Second Generation
“Motherhood is the most respected and noblest of all callings.”
President Boyd K. Packer
Alan Osmond
For The Family
Father’s Day – “Like Father, Like Son”
By Alan on Jun 15 in Blog tagged alan, Alan and Suzanne osmond, army lead, as He did, barrack, challenges, church, dedication died, education, eight boys, eternal, example, Family, family life, forever, George, George and Olive Osmond, good meals, help others, impacted, Jesus Christ, knowledge, lare family, Like Father, Like son, live again, love, love at home, loving home, married, memories, nurtured, order, organization, Osmonds, osmonds second generation, parallel, passed away, point the way, prayer, regimentation, respect, righteous, role model, same way, showed me, Sons, spirit, spirit world, Suzanne Pinegar, tender, The Family, traditions, truth, watched him, worked hard | 2 Comments
Father’s Day – “Like Father, Like Son”
“Having been born of goodly parents”, I was blessed to be the third member of a family of eight sons and one daughter of George and Olive Osmond. We grew up in the town of Ogden, Utah with fond memories of a wonderful family life.
My Mother, Olive, was so kind
and tender as she nurtured us children. She love to cook and taught us music in a most wonderful and loving home. Her parents were both educators and my mother would have been too, but she fulfilled her first priority and married my father and had a large family. Because she loved education, she asked my father to build a schoolroom in the attic of our home where she used her skills as a teacher and theologian to teach us children many truths.
My Father was my hero and my role model. We called him “Father” out of respect and I wanted to be like him when I grew up. I was by his side when he built, plumbed, wired, and remodeled homes as a great carpenter. I watched him and was by his side when he milked cows, hauled hay, irrigated the orchard and fields, or as we stamped and packaged postal items at the post office that he had. Father also loved to sing. I sat behind him while he was driving the car and as we sang together, he would sing in harmony with Mother. That was how I learned to sing harmony. Learning that skill truly impacted my life. Father taught me how to fish, to hoe sugar beets and how to drive the tractor and haul hay. He always involved my brothers and me in his work projects and led by example. He always stood by us when the going got tough or was challenging. You see, Father had been an army sergeant and knew how to lead men. Several evidences of that training showed up in how he raised our sister Marie and us eight boys.
One example of that was when we got older and our home needed more bedrooms. Father decided to build on to the back of our house and built what he called, a dormitory. Yes, you are right, it was like an army barrack with seven military 
metal framed army cots and blankets, foot lockers at the end of the beds, and open closets where our clothes needed to be neatly hung and arranged as there where regular inspections that occurred. He knew how to lead and train military men in the army so like them, Father taught us in many of the same ways and how to have order. Some neighbors had asked him if the way he was raising his kids wasn’t ‘regimentation’. He would just smile and respond back saying; “I look at it as organization.”
I remember many times when he helped friends by serving them. My Father and Mother were always doing things to help others. They started the Osmond Foundation to raise money for deaf children, two of which were my older brothers. This was a pattern of my father and I wanted to be like him, “Like Father, Like Son.” He was a hard worker and organizer and gave freely of his time in headed up several fundraising projects within the church and the community.
Like my father, I too, found and married the most wonderful girl in the world, Suzanne Pinegar, and she is my eternal partner. Suzanne has blessed me with eight wonderful
sons. As a father, I tried to raise them the best I knew.
I can look back and see a parallel in many of the same ways and traditions that I learned from my father. Those patterns and traditions of life now exist among us as a family with our sons and their families. Yes, they honor me and call me Father and they have learned to work hard and to never give up. Yes, they also love
music and have excelled in it masterfully. I told them to get “real jobs” and they did get good educations with a love to learn. Yes, they love the out of doors like I did as a son and are all Eagle Scouts. Seven of them so far have served full time missions and have returned and married. Yes, they grew up in a home with respect, order, good cooking, love, and with religious convictions that honors our Lord Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. We learn from Jesus’s example that even what He did, was as His Father has done; “Like Father, like Son”.
This Father’s Day, I reflect back on my father’s life and how much he showed me by example the way to be and to become. He taught us to be positive and to never give up when we were challenged and would say, “You can do it”. He also taught us that “You can be what you want to become, if you become what you want to be.” He was hard working yet a righteous man with a tender “marshmallow” heart”, as my mother would say, as he blessed his family and took us all to church. He served in the bishopric and held several other church callings in which he blessed others. We never had a meal together without first having a word of prayer and giving thanks and blessing the food. We always had family prayer at night and even before every show that my family and I did later when we became entertainers. When major decisions were made, we would counsel with the Lord together in kneeling family prayer seeking inspiration and giving thanks. This was the way we grew up because it was the way he did.
I remember the day my mother passed away and which was a hard thing and then not long after that when my father died. It is not easy to see them go but it is those times when the knowledge of that they had taught us gave us the understanding that we would live again and be with them. When my Father died, I was the first one to be by his side. I saw him lying cold and still on his bed. His body was there but my Father’s spirit wasn’t. I shed some tears and held his hand as I offered a prayer of gratitude to my Heavenly Father. I thanked Him for giving me the greatest earthly father I could ever have and for the good man that he was. It was then that I honestly started to smile as I knew he was now once again with my Mother in the Spirit world. I looked at him and said, “Father, save me a place, up there.”
Some day, I too, will graduate and do as my Father, my Savior, and my God have done, and live on eternally. ”Like Father, Like Son”.
Alan Osmond
For The Family
Elizabeth Smart Marries In Hawaiian Mormon Temple
By Alan on Feb 19 in Blog tagged attends BYU, child advocacy work, close friends, commentator for ABC News, elizabeth smart, Family, honeymoon, kidnapping, Laie Temple, LDS mission, married, Matthew Gilmour, Mormon, private reception, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Family, traditional wedding, unscheduled ceremony | Comments Off
Elizabeth Smart marries in Hawaiian Mormon temple.
LAIE, Hawaii — Elizabeth Smart and Matthew Gilmour were married Saturday on the North Shore of the island of Oahu.
The couple exchanged vows at the Laie Hawaii Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in front of a small group of immediate family members, according to a statement released by Smart family spokesman Chris Thomas.
The wedding party was celebrated at a private reception and luau. Following Saturday’s festivities, the couple planned to leave on an extended honeymoon to an undisclosed location.
“Elizabeth’s desire was for what most women want — to celebrate her nuptials in a private wedding with family and close friends,” Thomas said.
When the couple became engaged just last month, they made plans to get married this summer. But the couple recently decided the move the date up by several months.
“After the story broke about her engagement and the media became increasingly invasive, Elizabeth recognized it was going to be impossible to have a traditional wedding devoid of distractions and unusual challenges outside of her control,” Thomas said. “She decided, about a week ago, the best way to avoid significant distraction was to change her wedding plans and to get married in an unscheduled ceremony outside of Utah.”
Gilmour, of Aberdeen, Scotland, and Smart met while she was serving an LDS mission in France.
Smart rose to international prominence after she was kidnapped at knife point from her parents’ Salt Lake home in 2002 by Brian David Mitchell. Smart, then 14, was held by her captors for nine months, enduring repeated sexual abuse. She was rescued when she, Mitchell and Mitchell’s wife, Wanda Barzee, were spotted in Sandy in March of 2003.
She testified against Mitchell, who was convicted of kidnapping and rape in U.S. District Court in 2010. He is currently serving a life sentence. Barzee is serving a 15-year sentence in a federal prison for her role in the crimes.
Many people who watched Smart testify against Mitchell at trial and during sentencing commented on her poise and confidence on the witness stand.
She has said on a number of occasions that she has been guided by the advice of her mother, who told her the day after her rescue that Mitchell may have taken nine months of her life from her, but she must not allow him to take one more minute.
Smart has advised other victims “not to let it hold them back.”
Since her rescue, she served an LDS mission, formed a foundation to advocate on behalf of children, attends BYU and works as commentator for ABC News.
Upon returning from their honeymoon, Smart “looks forward to continuing her child advocacy work,” Thomas said. “Her wedding further demonstrates it is possible to rise above challenging circumstance to lead a happy and productive life.”
Chris Thomas, Smart family spokesman
For The Family
Donny Osmond – Family Survival In The Entertainment Business
By Alan on Dec 26 in Blog tagged alone, Approved, blessed, broke, dedication, Donny Osmond, Excitement, faithful, Family, happy, Loneliness, loving, Marie, married, Mormon, One Take, Popular, religious, rich, Show Business, successful, survival in the entertainment business, tested, thankful, The Family, The Osmond Family, The Osmonds, together, work | 9 Comments
Family, Work, Dedication, Loneliness, Excitement, One Take, Loving, Popular, Rich, Broke, Tested, Religious, Approved, Married, Faithful, Mormon, Thankful, Successful, Alone, Together, Blessed, Happy . . .
Donny Osmond of The Osmond Family.
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This is a glorious time in which to live here upon the earth.
As we travel through life, there come times when we must stand up and be counted. These are times of testing. Are we on the Lord’s side, keeping his commandments? Do we sustain our leaders and uphold them? Do we stand steadfast and unwavering? Do we compromise those things we know are true?
It is a temptation to become so involved in the things of the world that we lose sight of more important values, the things of the spirit and family. We tried to do this with our music.
All the effort and struggle and sorrow will be well worth it, for we will have earned the greatest of all gifts, the gift of eternal life. May this be our happy lot, I humbly pray.
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” 2 Tim. 4: 7
Families are Forever
For The Family
Alan Osmond’s Response after viewing this:
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Submitted on 2011/12/27 at 1:39 am
This is Alan. I need to comment! I was somewhat taken back by this video with this open hearted discussions by Donny and my brothers whom I love. It was hard to hear them say those things that we have kept to ourselves for so many years when we were called goody goody, too clean cut, too Mormon, and that we would never make it in show business because of our righteous, moral and Christian, principle driven family image that we had and yet we had the greatest friends and relationships with the biggest and best names in the business and leaders of the world. I saw and heard what Donny and my brothers said and sometimes it was really hard times but, can I tell you how much fun we all had together! As the oldest of the brothers, we were treated and loved so well by our fans and friends that even Walt Disney, Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney, Led Zepplin, The Queen of England, Ronald Reagan and others commented how much they liked our family. We had nothing to hide or to prove except to be who we were and to be the best entertainers we could become. We worked hard at it and loved it. (Most of it.) Yes, we would come off stage just sweaty and tired but were well fulfilled by working hard and in receiving the audiences applause and standing ovations. We had to lease Led Zepplin’s sound system because it was the loudest and our audiences all screamed and couldn’t hear us without it! We were told that we were the loudest group on tour in the 70′s because of all the screaming girls! We were also each others best friends! We sang together, worked together, laughed together, cried together, we prayed together, and gave up much of our childhood and our lives to our careers for each other because we found ourselves within a family of love and togetherness that was unlike any that we had ever seen. Yes, we are normal and have our moments but the strong will of a firm yet loving father and the love and support of a saintly mother, we kept balance in our home and lives. I was ready to leave the group and go serve a mission for our church for two years but was told by the Holy spirit after prayer not to; that I was to stay with my brothers and as a family and continue to spread good will and open doors for the missionaries by setting an example as a family to the world. We believe that God’s Plan of life is the family and we were going to never change the way we lived our lives. We sacrificed for one another and dedicated our lives to the Lord that we might bring joy and happiness to someone in the audience with every show that we did. We prayed before every show that we might touch someones life for the better and show by example the love that we had among us and for them so that maybe someone would want to know the reason for the happiness, joy, peace and love that they saw and felt among us on stage. We had an act but our family of brotherhood and love for one another was no act! It was real and still is very, very strong and true today. It was hard being the eldest of the group and the so called, “boss”/”leader” with the responsibility of always trying to make sure we were well rehearsed and ready, and that we came up with an idea of something to do each week on the Andy Williams Shows because we were NOT on the show the next week if we didn’t! That alone made us work together and develop individual talents reaching inside to write songs, learn many different musical instruments, dance, develop our personalities and comedy wit with showmanship that others would want to see. We were not all Donny Osmond’s and never wanted to be but, we were pleased to be his brother as well as Marie’s and we were supportive and had a slogan that we were, “All for one and one for all”, even if we gave up our personal rock and roll careers. We didn’t care who was out front as long as it was an Osmond! I wasn’t even married 24 hours when Father insisted that I leave my wife Suzanne on my honeymoon and fly to Los Angeles with my youngest brother Jimmy to make sure he was well produced on a TV show that he was doing. Yes, we sacrificed for each other all right but so did our Lord Jesus Christ for all of us. He is our example and mentor. He is the way and the reason for all of the long hard working years we gave and why we lived righteously and never succumbed to the temptations of the flesh. Yes, there were opportunities to slip from our moral commitments but we stood against them together and individually with integrity and we tried to always live His ways and honestly worked hard to live it. No, we aren’t perfect but that’s why we came to earth; to learn. I wouldn’t trade a day of my life with my best friends, my brothers and Marie. And, let’s not forget our two older brothers who had to watch us from the wings because they were deaf. They were just as important as any one of us and they were our heros! And they knew it! After I posted this video, I went to bed but woke up knowing that I had to come down and share my heart and let everyone know that we honestly have NO REGRETS for the MOST wonderful years we could have ever lived together in the entertainment, recording, and television business world. We were rich, we were poor, we could live happily with very little and still can give and share what we have been blessed with to each other and know that, “where much is given, much is expected”. I feel our parents are watching us from up above more than entertainers and musicians but, as successful fathers and a Mother Marie, husbands, wife, with our children who are sealed to us and us to them for time and for all eternity. We plan on being together forever! What is that worth? As Mother would say, “More than tongue can tell.” We spent our lives in Show Business but it was NOT our Life! We don’t take any gold records or STUFF with us after we leave this world but, we DO take wonderful memories with broken hearts and contrite spirits and the oh, so many blessings and friends that we made and love. What we do take with us are our solid marriages, our individual families and the greatest memories and experiences that anyone could ever have had in this life with each other standing side by side, just as we sang with our first theme song. We may have been a little bit country, and a little bit Rock and Roll, but we are all a whole lot better people for having had the tests and trials that we had as well as the success and recognition that was profound. We could NOT have done it as individuals as well as we did do it as a family; an Eternal and a Forever Family! Alan Osmond |
My Sister Marie Osmond Re-married Her First Husband.
By Alan on May 10 in Blog tagged eternal marriage, eternally, I am happy, Marie Osmond, married, Mormon Temple, re-married, Steve Craig, The Family, The House of The Lord, theFamily | 4 Comments
My sister Marie Osmond called me early Monday morning and said that she and Steve Craig were going to get re-married in the Las Vegas Temple on Wednesday and asked if I could be there.
I told her we were just leaving for Connecticut to speak at a M.S. Convention.
Marie said, that’s okay. We want a small wedding and no press. She said, Alan, I am really happy!
Marie also told me that the wedding dress she had made wasn’t turning out the way she wanted and so she went digging into her closet to find her old first weddind dress. She said, it fits!
I asked if I could tell my children about it and she said, no, I want this to be very private moment just for my family.
Here is a video and article about her.
When we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints marry in The House of The Lord, or the Temple, we do not part at death as in most marriages but we are sealed together for time and for all eternity! Here is a scripture that explains it.
“If a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the keys of this priesthood; . . . and if [they] abide in my covenant, . . . it shall be done unto them in all things whatsoever my servant hath put upon them, in time, and through all eternity; and shall be of full force when they are out of the world” (D&C 132:19).
My sister Marie Osmond called me early Monday morning and said that she and Steve Craig were going to get re-married in the Las Vegas Temple on Wednesday and asked if I could be there. 
By ANDREW SPRINGER and ASHLEIGH BANFIELD
