Happy Sunday,
Here
are some ideas to help in Personal progress: Challenge today: Look for
similarities among all of the experiences. What are today's
similarities?
Ideas for Personal Progress:
Faith #2:
Discover the principles of faith taught by the mothers of Helaman's
stripling warriors. Read Alma 56-45-48 and Alma 57:21. Review what "The
Family: A proclamation to the World" (see page 101) says about a
mother's role. With a mother, grandmother, or leader, discuss the
qualities a woman needs in order to teach children to have faith and to
base their decisions on gospel truths. How can these principles help you
in your life today and help you prepare to be a faithful woman, wife,
and mother? Record your thoughts and feelings in your journal.
Divine Nature#1: What are some of the divine qualities of a daughter of God? Read "The Family: A proclamation to the World"(see page 101); 2 peter 1; Alma 7 23-24; and Doctrine and Covenants 121:45. In your own words list the divine qualities discussed in your reading. Think about how you can discover and develop each of these qualities. Record your ideas in your journal.
Divine Nature#2: As a young woman you are blessed with divine feminine qualities. Increase your understanding of and appreciation for womanhood.
Read Proverbs 31:10-31 and two talks on womanhood from a conference
issue of the church magazines. Review what "The family: A Proclamation
to the World" (see page 101) says about being a wife and a mother. Then
ask your mother or another mother you admire what she thinks are
important attributes for being a mother. List the attributes in your
journal. Then choose one of those attributes and strive to develop it.
After two weeks report your success to a parent or leader. (I sent
you one talk last week, if you have not read that talk yet, that is one
you can read. It is truly one of my favorite talks given)
Divine Nature Project: One of the ideas for Divine Nature project mentions: List the divine attributes and roles of women as taught in "The Family: A Proclamation to the World(see page 101), and carry out a project that helps you learn more about one of those roles. (with all of these experiences together, those hours should even add up to about 2 hours each, give or take depending on how fast you read, and think about what attributes you have in yourself already. one of the experiences asks to live by those attributes for two weeks, if you're already doing those for about two weeks, why not add on another two weeks to practice different divine attributes of woman hood). It should not be that hard if you're already making a list already. Why not do it all together? Record how long it takes for you to read about the qualities and attributes of a young woman, how long does it take to make a list? After that has been recorded all you would have to do is to do your project in the difference of that time equaling to 10 hours. Remember if you work on a project for two hours Monday-Friday that would equal your 10 hours! ;) It doesn't sound very long if you break it down.
Integrity#7:
List the issues, trends, and problems that weaken the family. Read the
first presidency message on page 1 of this book, "The Family: A
proclamation to the World" (see page 101), and the section on the family
in For the Strength of Youth. Then research in the Church magazines the
counsel of those whom we sustain as prophets, seers, and revelators. Write
in your journal your plan to strengthen your present family and the
values and traditions you want to establish with your future family.
Virtue#1:
Virtue is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral
standards. It includes chastity and purity. The power to create mortal
life is an exalted power God has given his children. He has commanded
that this power be used only between a man and a woman, lawfully wedded
as husband and wife. Study the meaning and importance of chastity and
virtues by reading Moroni 9:9; Jacob 2:28; "The Family: A proclamation to the World" (see page 101);
and the section on sexual purity in For the Strength of Youth. Also
read Article of Faith number thirteen and Proverbs 31:10031. In your journal write the promised blessings of being sexually clean and pure and your commitment to be chaste.
I
have given you 6 experiences and a project that have something similar
and I imagine you noticed one common denominator in each of those ideas
mentioned. "The Family: A Proclamation to the World." Now, I totally
understand that looking at all of these may be really overwhelming. Do
not fret.
Thoughts:
This
is something that I have been thinking about: In all of these
experiences they ask you to list or write in your journal of what you
have learned about womanhood. The important qualities you have already
as a young women, and what more you can learn about being a Wife,
mother, and most importantly a Daughter of God and to our earthly
parents. No matter where we come from, we all have mother figures that
hold to those qualities. Make an effort as you're reading through these
experiences in your personal progress of what is mentioned repeatedly.
Heavenly Father loves to teach by repetition. The more that is repeated,
the more it is engraved into our hearts, our minds, actions, and
spirit. Each time we hear something in repetition, take that to heart.
"What do I need to learn more about myself that I don't already know
about?" "What does Heavenly Father see in me that I have not learned for
myself yet?"
I
have given you these ideas because they are ideas that my mom probably
mentioned to me as a young woman over ten years ago. And now being a
Personal progress specialist, I am starting to see why mom would have me
do so much for Family home evening. and I kind of wish I would have
looked closer. Because, I remember looking for something "quick" to
teach my family, essentially looking for the easiest thing. Haha! If I
would have known that 5 experiences(Virtue did not come into Personal
Progress until 2010). and a project had me read the same-thing and write
in my journal about the same thing that would have been 5 experiences
down in my book all in one day! All I would have had to do was to have
my family help me read the scriptures mentioned and quote a couple talks
to make it all count. And for the last experience where I would have to
live by qualities and attributes of a Mother, Wife, and Daughter of God
for two weeks would have been a lot easier also.
I knew there were some experiences that were asking me to do almost the same assignments!
Tips for Personal Progress: I will be repeating tips some weeks, but I hope I can change things around. And sometimes it does help to repeat. Maybe you'll get an idea, don't be afraid to tell me what has helped you towards earning your personal progress.
- **New Tip***: As you look through your personal progress this week, look for experiences and projects that ask you to read and write, or even memorize the same thing. Read what each of those experiences ask of you, and do them. Write them in your journal and be sure to separate them because there are few differences among those similarities. But, if it helps you to combine a couple experiences and "Kill two birds with one stone." Do it! Who says you have to do one experience at a time?
- Everyone who is participating in Personal progress(including you leaders, remember the challenge I extended a couple months back to complete your personal progress? This is me following up on how you're doing! ;)
- This is what helped me through my personal progress (actually what my mom encouraged me to work do as well as my now 12 year old sister):
- She had my sister( who is 12) and me (when I was in YW) look through our personal progress book to look for experiences that talked about what I was doing every day of my life already. If you find something you do in school, in your personal life at home, or both. That is an easy check off right there!
- Also, Volunteer to teach Family home evening, especially those that are close to graduating High school this year. That will help you with the process a lot more.
Conclusion:
One
of the most important things to remember that Personal progress is not a
race on who completes their personal progress first. Even though I
finished my personal progress at 15 years old. I wish I would have
stretched it out another year or two. Because, I would have needed it
for High School, Swim Team, and even Seminary. I probably would have had
a lighter attitude my junior year.
The
thing I am hoping to accomplish is to help young women in this ward to
have confidence in themselves, gain talents that one might not have ever
thought they would have ever had, discover attributes inside themselves
what they can carry the rest of their lives into womanhood and
motherhood. And to help our girls to understand that Heavenly Father
Loves them very much! He understands what we all go through. Personal
Progress isn't just a check off the list in development of our
testimony, it truly is something that helps us progress towards our
Heavenly Father. If we stand idle, we do not progress, we get lost in
Satan's hands. If we keep progressing, learning, discovering things
about ourselves daily even after we earn sacred covenants in the temple
we will learn more about ourselves and find ourselves closer to our
Heavenly Father. In the Name of Jesus Christ Amen.
Don't
be afraid to share with me some ideas with me if you end up getting
any. And I'll be sure to mention it in next week's letter. 
Thank You,
Sister Natasha ByrdI hope this helps some people looking to finish and or accomplish completing their personal progress. I have been assigned to speak at New Beginnings in about 10 days on Personal Progress as a Leader. I'll post twice next week with one post with my weekly letter and what I spoke about at New Beginnings. This year will be interesting because the next young women turning twelve is mid 2018. So no new Beehives this year in my ward.
"Life is tough but it's even tougher When you're stupid." (Do what works in Life) -Anonymous
