Melanie and Personal Progress

Last week was unforgettable.

Melanie received her Personal Progress necklace, something that has been a joint effort between two wards. When her family moved into our ward 4 or 5 years ago, we inherited her book which contained value experiences girls in the other ward had worked on.

It was passed to me when I became the young women president almost three years ago. For several years I attempted to have girls work on it but it started to stall.

Then I had an epiphany one day. This should be her Personal Progress as much as it could be. Melanie has down syndrome which allows us to personalize the program as much as we need to. I started looking at things she had already done or was doing and started marking things off. She works at a doctor's office; she's competed in a pageant for special needs; she leads the music in our young womens each Sunday; she helped us make bread for the sacrament. Last October we decided as a group to try and have it completed by her birthday in March. Our activities and lessons going forward were centered on experiences we needed to finish to help Mel complete this awesome program.

Her birthday came on March 23 with only a few things left to complete. I am so proud of all the girls who helped make this a dream come true for her. Melanie feels like she is one of us now, wearing that necklace with pride.

She loves unconditionally and has a contagious laugh. Also don't get between her and her diet coke or you will get the evil eye.

What a privilege and blessing it has been to have her be a part of our young women group. What a privilege and blessing it has been for me to know her, and because of that relationship, I am a better person.

Personal Progress - Scripture project for Knowledge

Awhile ago in our family scripture reading, we hit that great stumbling block called Isaiah. And we chipped away at it until we finally broke through and felt a little free-er. At the time I was reading a book by John Bytheway to help me understand it a little more so my youngins wouldn't get bogged down.

 

I highly recommend reading this book if you want to understand any part of Isaiah a little more. I wrote notes in my scriptures

and used post-its to write notes

and prepared glue-ins.

This little project took several months and I know the next time I roll through this particular section of scripture, I'll be a little more prepared and my understanding will increase.

Personal Progress - Faith and prayer

Faith is not just a nice principle; it is a POWER.

Alma 32:21

Hebrews 11

Ether 12:27

The world's view of faith: You can have faith in anything and if you believe it long enough, it will come true. That is not true faith. It is simply being a good guesser.

True faith resides in things as they really are, in conjunction with the spirit. It is not second guessing the Lord. You know it's right even though you may not know how it is all going to unfold.

Jacob speaking of Sherem, a faith-shaker:

 And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken.

Regardless of our own unique situations, what we want to try to create, what we need to establish, is a faith like that of Jacob, a faith that cannot be shaken.

Faith is about is about wanting what God wants. And how do we know what God wants? We pray. We don't just say prayers. We pray. As Enos prayed. With mighty prayer. Mighty prayer is sincere, focused, not necessarily long, is real and not rote or trite. It commands some energy and thought. And it's work.

Beginning my 3-week journey of praying morning and night, I had not been as consistent in the mornings. I usually would jump out of bed in a rush to get kids up and going and out the door. And before I knew it it was noon as I rushed about my day accomplishing the tasks I had outlined. That had to change. I made a goal to pray every morning before leaving the bathroom. That way I had started my day on good footing.

As I prayed during these three weeks, I prayed more earnestly that I would have the spirit with me throughout the day and that I would recognize it's promptings more. What I learned is that faith is not passive, a good feeling, or even wishful thinking. It is a real power that requires real work. And prayer is the means to tap into that power. I cannot even begin to describe the peace that comes from knowing that as I pray with real intent there is a God who hears me, who loves me, who knows my name, and knows exactly how I feel when life is either good or hard.

P. S. One of my most favorite "church" songs is called He Hears Me by Hillary Weeks. As a 17-year-old girl it touched me deeply the first time I heard it. The spirit was so strong as it quietly whispered to me that prayer is real, God is real, and answers do come . . . eventually.

I've been cumbered about

If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates.

--Joseph Smith

Sometimes I really feel like I fail at this. There are many days when I'm running from one obligation to another, falling into bed at the end of the day without taking one minute, even just a small moment, to be still and listen for that quiet voice, those whispered thoughts and impressions. I wish I took more time to really contemplate, meditate, and ponder in order to let the Lord really guide my life. I know he could do more with it than I am.

I'm so afraid I've missed some great opportunities simply because I've been more Martha-like and cumbered about with much serving . . . in my family, in my calling, in my neighborhood, in my circle of friendships, with my pet projects. It's good to serve but even better to be more like Mary who came unto Christ and sat at his feet to be taught of him. Life is incredible busy but there should always be time for things of eternity.

When Kiersten turned 12 and entered the Young Women program, I thought it would be awesome to complete the personal progress for my second time with her and then again when Ashlyn turned 12 since there is 6 years between them.

Well Kiersten is now 14 and I haven't made any headway. Once in awhile I'll look at it but not in depth and certainly not to set any goals.

Tonight was New Beginnings, and ironically as I sat there during a talk by one of the leaders, I thought, "Oh well. I'm a little late getting started. I'll just try again with Ash." Shouldn't new beginnings be about starting over, a fresh start, a new perspective no matter the season, the time, the stage of life.

Our bishop then referenced a talk by Elder Uchtdorf titled "The Best Time to Plant a Tree."

An old proverb says, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.”

There is something wonderful and hopeful about the word NOW. There is something empowering about the fact that if we choose to decide now, we can move forward at this very moment.

Now is the best time to start becoming the person we eventually want to be—not only 20 years from now but also for all eternity.

After hearing that I had a new vision with fresh thoughts. Sure I feel like I fail a lot at a lot of different things (like not getting started on my personal progress). But that doesn't matter. I can start NOW to be different, to do things differently, to move forward.

I left that meeting tonight with a renewed commitment to start and hopefully finish with Kiersten. I'm going to have to play a lot of catch up since she has got a smidgin of head start on me. But that is no reason to fail and quit. I feel like as I sat in that quiet room, the environment was perfect for the Holy Ghost to tell me what I needed to hear.