Lift where you stand

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said in one of his conference talks "Brethren, stand close together and lift where you stand." What an incredible phrase and challenge. Do we have the courage to stand close together and lift? Some would say no-however, I say yes! I feel that each of us has the ability to rise to our best selves and meet this challenge which President Uchtdorf has issued to all of us. For as long as I can remember, I have always set a very high standard for myself. So high, that often I cannot reach it. In a way, I try to lift the piano, or in other words, every challenge and trial myself. This is no way to do things! I have learned that life is much easier once you allow others to get close and lift along with you. The simple yet profound statement "stand close together and lift where you stand", is a concept which can be applied to almost every aspect of life. I love the example of the 2,000 stripling warriors used by President Uchtdorf. He explains that we cannot name any of them as individuals, however as a group, they are remembered for honesty, courage, and their willingness to serve. These three traits that are vital to leadership. From the phrase, I realize that we cannot do everything alone- nor should we. We have been given the incredible blessings of friendship, communication, and leadership-let us all use them to the best of our ability. At times we may be down trodden and even beaten by the hardships of life, but why must that have such reign and influence on our day to day conduct? I say it doesn't have to. We have a loving Heavenly Father that is willing to stand close to us and lift- Its up to us to let him (and others around us) help us lift our burdens, trials, and challenges. We all have gifts and a purpose in this life. I strongly feel that the only way to discover them is to do as President Uchtdorf challenged- "stand close together and lift where you stand."

time management

In class this week we had the chance to learn about time management! Brittany Beattie was kind enough to come speak to us. She gave us 5 steps to having better time management. They were as follows: seed ye first the kingdom of God, keep water in your well, follow the 10 second rule, choose best over good and better, and focus on people not a process or things. Overall, I really enjoyed the lecture. In class, we were challenged to pull a if/then principle from Mosiah 4:27. I came up with 'If I find balance in my life, then all parts in my life shall fall in place and i will find out who I am'. I also watched the Olympics this week. I watched snowboarding, ice skating, skiing. Balance was key to all of these. I found that everyone kept falling-especially in the womens half pipe.

service challenge

In class on Monday, we were able to hear from Brother Cox. It was fantastic! He spoke to us about Divine Centered Leadership. Brother Cox said that there are five practices of a divine centered leader. They are as follows; Sharing an inspired vision, challenging unrighteousness, modeling the way/truth/and the life, knowing each heart, and serving others so they may act.
For our challenge this week, we were supposed to do some form of service. This was such an exciting opportunity to serve those around me. Brandt, Carlie, and I decided that we would buy a bunch of candy and give it to people outside of the testing center (I also gave high fives). It was so fun to see all the students responses! We could tell everyone loved it! I think that what we did falls into what Brother Cox was telling us on Monday. Our service falls into the last two practices. It showed people that we were able to care for those we didn't know and also that simply going out and serving others, hopefully they will do the same.

Myers-Briggs

For class on Monday, we had to complete the Myers-Briggs test. To be honest, I did not feel that this test was going to be able to provide me with accurate results. However, after receiving my results, I am very surprised to see how accurate they really are. According to the test, I am an ENFP. This means I scored very well in the following areas; Extraversion, Intuition, Feeling, and Perceiving. Extraversion means that I focus on the outer world of people and things. Intuition means that I tend to take in information from patterns and the big picture and focus on future possibilities. Feeling means that I tend to make decisions based primarily on values and evaluations. Finally, perceiving means that I tend to like a flexible and spontaneous approach to life and to keep my options open. Overall, these four categories describe me pretty well. However, I do not feel that this test is 100 percent accurate, but closer than any other test I have taken.