Personal Progress

So when I was in the young women's program growing up I completed personal progress to get my medallion. I still have that and wear it proudly. But we had talked about some of the training that came from the YW General Presidency where they basically say how can we ask the girls to be doing all the different things they need to do, especially daily righteous habits, if we ourselves aren't doing it? That really hit me. Not that I was doing anything really bad but I wasn't always super consistent. Then we had some awesome messages recently at our Stake Conference sessions that hit me even harder.

About a year ago I completed a couple value experiences. But it seemed hard with two little kids and it kind of died off. Then all of a sudden, earlier this year, I caught fire. I have been passing off stuff left and right. I try to incorporate it into lessons when I can or when an activity fell through we'd work on some personal progress. I hope I can be the example I need for my Beehives so they can see that it is totally doable and really not as hard as they might think! It has been a lot of fun. It has also been a great learning experience. The sacrament is more personal to me now. I have a greater love and appreciation for it each week. The hymns that we sing before we take the sacrament have much more meaning now. I love and appreciate the gospel so much more. Daily prayer and scripture study means more to me now than it ever did. Still working on being consistent with my morning prayers but we're getting there.

I have realized how easy the gospel really is. One lesson I taught talked about the Book of Mormon and how this man had realized it was either of the devil or of God. Everything in there is nothing but good things so it must be from God. Simple as that. Then in Stake Conference, Elder Dewsnup spoke to us about a talk he heard from Elder Bednar. He talked about how when Satan tempted Jesus. He said how the only real temptation Jesus had was to forget that he was the son of God. Basically it goes the same way for us. Any temptation we are ever given and any temptation we fall to is because we forgot who we really were. That we are a son or daughter of God. If we can truly understand that we are children of God and our divine roll, then we will be able to overcome any temptation. I had never thought of it that way before but its so true. It's really so simple but we as human beings always make things so much more complicated.

I have seen friends on facebook getting involved with things and doing things that make me nervous for them. They get sucked into these ideas thinking this is so great and this will be awesome but really when you go back to all the basic teachings of the gospel the clear thing is to stay away from those things. I've always kind of been against certain self help type things. I think depending on where the sources of information are coming from it can be dangerous and lead you astray from the teachings of the gospel. If there are things you really struggle with I think that is something you take up with your Bishop and he can give you the best direction because sometimes we need help with things. That's life. But when you start looking at outside sources to better your life or marriage that just scares me. Everything the scriptures teach us or the additional study guides and resources the Church puts out can be so helpful and bring you closer together as husband and wife or as a family or maybe just help you and strengthen your testimony. I see so many pyramid schemes out there. Anything that makes you think you have to buy now or join now is just pushing you to make a decision quick without much thought or prayer. It can end up costing you money. I'm also not into those because most the stuff is a waste of money to me. Those are extra things in life that me and my family don't need to survive. I don't want other people blowing their money on insignificant items. How can I feel I'm being honest with someone selling something that is basically a pyramid scheme? And don't even get me started on salesmen. I hate them. Probably because I've worked in sales and I hate the way most of them work. I know my dad has always been honest. He would always give the people the truth and sometimes he didn't make as much money as he would have liked but he gained a customer that knew they could trust him so when something went wrong with their hvac system they could trust him to be honest with his work. Sadly there are not enough good, honest salesmen out there.

I've also seen a lot of diet stuff out there. People looking for quick fixes. I don't get it? What ever happened to hard work to get results? For my Knowledge project I have been working on eating healthier and losing weight. I haven't lost as much weight as I was hoping so far but we are eating better and feeling better. I finally got Scott running! Woohoo! Although he is much faster than me its nice to be out exercising with him. We can ride together and run together and he's helping to push me. And although weight wise the results are not what I was hoping to see I've lost a lot of inches in places and toned my muscles. I think this last week was harder when I found out my aunt died but I'm trying to step it back up again. I've lost 4 inches in my waist the last 4 weeks so that's pretty awesome. I'm hoping to make this the permanent change I need and my family needs. I want them to see the importance of taking care of our bodies. Of course we're not going to turn crazy vegan and we'll have treats every now and again but to be healthy overall is my goal.

I'm really excited to be working towards getting the new medallion and also eventually earning the honor bee. I hope I can be an inspiration to my girls. I hope they see the importance of it all. It really is life changing and always for the better. Anything that can help you grow closer to the Savior is a good thing. I hope others out there will do the same. You can go online and do it for yourself. I do all mine online because it is so easy and simple to have it all kept there for me. You don't have to be in YW to do personal progress. I just know my testimony is being strengthened and its helping me to make our family stronger. We're reading more together and praying more together and there is more love in our home. I used to think I could never do it or never had the time but now I've realized that everything the program offers is everything I needed to improve on in my life. Heavenly Father always has a good plan and I'm glad I finally picked up on all the hints to get it done! :)