Weekly Spotlight Challenge-Choice and Accountability!

Okay, so it's been awhile...I'M SORRY! I am such a scatterbrain, I am all over the place. But Thank goodness for girls camp to remind me to do this blog! Whew! Did any of you do the knowledge challenge? Did you work on your Knowledge  10 hour project? Did you do the knowledge value experiences? If you did, (and if you can remember) leave a comment to tell me about it!

So this weeks spotlight challenge is...drum-roll please.......Choice and Accountability! Joshua 24:15: Choose you this day whom ye will serve; but as for me and my house, we will serve the lord. I love that scripture and think it is a perfect scripture for this week! It basically says that you and your family and friends cans serve who they want, but me and my family will serve and follow the Lord. In the Young Women booklet, the little sentence that goes with it is, I will choose good over evil and will accept responsibility for my decisions. I think that is such a powerful sentence because it basically sums up what we should do for our entire lives.  We should ALWAYS choose good over evil and ALWAYS accept responsibility for our actions, even if they are our wrong actions.

Now the question remains, how am I supposed to help myself choose all the righteous decisions? Well for starters, we could start with saying morning and evening prayers, ask Him to help you make the right decisions, ask for the Holy Ghost to be with you throughout the day. Another biggie in helping you make the right decisions are scripture study. Those don't have to be morning and nightly, just whenever you can fit them in your schedule. I challenge you to work on your value experiences. If you have started your ten-hour project then work a little bit on that. This blog is my ten hour project for Choice and Accountability! Remember to tell me what you did for the knowledge challenge and what will you be doing this week for choice and accountability? Leave a comment to let me know!

 

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Weekly Spotlight Challenge- Knowledge

Hello again! How did you all do on last week's challenge? Did you do some of the value experiences in your book? Did you think about your individual worth? Leave a comment to let me know what you did! I tried to think about my own individual worth this week. I am the type of person who likes to please other people. When we have guests over, I feel the need to entertain them, or get them anything they need. Sometimes though, I need to realize it is okay to please myself too, and not just other people. I am not saying that you should try to stop pleasing others. I am just saying (or rather, typing) that you should  not be afraid to please yourself.

I know that you are completely in the dark concerning this week's challenge. Well to bring you out into the light, it is knowledge. I know you totally didn't see that coming based on the title of this post! (May I just point out that this is a really cool coincidence with school starting up?) What most people think of when they think of knowledge is what you learn at school, or really important life lessons taught to you by an elderly person. This week's challenge though focuses on a completely different type of knowledge though. This type of knowledge is spiritual knowledge. I want you to seek it out. A scripture that sums up this week's challenge is D and C 88:118 "Seek learning, even by study and also by faith"

This week's challenge will require scripture study. This week, instead of just reading your scriptures, I want you to think about what you are reading, highlight things that stand out to you, pay attention to the story. Another good thing to do this week is pray. Seek out the knowledge from Heavenly Father. Ask him whether the scriptures are true. Read about church history. Ask an adult about how they searched for knowledge when they were your age. Make up your own way to seek knowledge. This week I will post about people who searched for knowledge. (I WILL this week I WILL!) Don't forget to leave a comment on how you did on last week's challenge!!

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Weekly Spotlight Challenge: Indiviual Worth

I haven't posted for a while and I apologize for that. We had some issues but are now back! The last challenge I gave you all was work on your divine nature. How did you do on that challenge? Leave a comment to let me know what you did to work on developing your divine nature. I admit, I didn't do much to improve my divine nature. But I did pray and ask for help on developing divine nature. I also thought about what divine nature means. To me divine nature means that you are kind and loving. I believe we show our divine natures in the way we speak and act. Basically, our divine natures are, in my opinion, trying the hardest we can to be like Jesus.

  

Artwork from: http://sbrownehr.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/individual_worth2.jpg

You guessed it, this week's challenge is individual worth. I want you to work on developing your individual worth. What do you think individual worth means? Do you believe you are of value? If you don't believe that then this challenge should really help you. You do matter. Heavenly Father sent you here on this earth didn't he? Why would he have done that if it didn't matter. If someone tells you that you are worthless, don't listen to them. What do they know? Heavenly Father knows that you have value and that is all that matters. Even if you do have a high self esteem this challenge can still help you. It is good to remind yourself of your individual worth every once in a while.

Some ideas on what you can do this week for individual worth. Do some of the value experiences in the personal progress book. Talk to your mother or another adult on what they think individual worth means. Think yourself about what individual worth means and write your thoughts in a journal. Pray and ask for guidance on how to develop your own individual worth. Come up with your own idea and do it. There are so many ways on how to develop your own individual worth. As always, I will do a couple posts this week on people who knew/know that they had/have individual worth and put it to good use. Don't forget to comment on how you did with your divine nature challenge and don't forget to do this week's challenge!

Weekly Spotlight Challenge: Divine Nature

Before I give you this week's challenge, I am going to give you my overview on how I did on last week's challenge. Last week's challenge was faith. I did do a couple things to build my faith. Every morning and night I said my prayers. I really did try to connect with Heavenly Father while I was praying though, not just doing it to say I did it. I also tried to read the scriptures each night. (Although I admit I did miss a few nights.) While I read I tried to thoroughly study the scriptures though and not just read over the words. I also did a value experience in my personal progress book. So that is my weekly overview and I really think that my faith has grown, even if it is just a bit. Now comment and give me yours!

This weeks spotlight challenge is... divine nature! We as young women have a duty to develop our divine nature and that is exactly what we will be doing this week. For divine nature, I honestly think the best way to help develop that is by doing some of the value experiences. I have done a couple of them and they really do help you develop a divine nature. You can also make a list of virtues that you think are part of a woman's divine nature. Then chose one or two of them to work on this week. Ask your own mother or a leader what they did to develop divine nature when they were your age. Those are just a couple of ideas that you can do. If you don't like them, go ahead and make up your own way to develop divine nature!

Like last week, I will post stories of women developing divine nature or things that I have done to develop divine nature. (Although I will try to do more than last week!) Don't forget to give me last week's overview and don't forget your challenge this week! I will be helping develop my divine nature this week and will give my overview next week along with next week's challenge!

Amanda Barnes Smith, Woman of Amazing Faith

Amanda Barnes Smith was one of the early pioneers of the church. This woman was put through more trials in her life than most people. Amanda Barnes was happily married and living in Missouri as a saint with her husband and five children: Willard, age 13, Sardius, age 9, and twins, Alma and Alvira, age 4, and Ortensia, age 2. At the disaster of Haun's Mill, she lost her husband and Sardius and little Alma's hip was blown off. Willard had escaped into the woods and had gone back to the mill to see if there were any survivors. That's when he found little Alma.

Amanda Barnes Smith did not know what to do with little Alma, whose hip was completely gone. She was so devastated that she got down on her knees and began to plead with God, asking him what she should do. At that moment, she felt great peace and the seventh verse of "How Firm A Foundation" came into her mind.

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose

I will not, I cannot, dessert to his foes

That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake

I'll never, no never, no never forsake 

 That is when a miracle happened, she suddenly knew how to build her son a new hip. She was given the directions by Heavenly Father. Alma went on to walk again, lived a long and happy life and raised a family.

Amanda Barnes Smith lived out the rest of her years a very faithful person. Amanda Barnes Smith had faith that Heavenly Father could heal her son. Because of her faith, she was comforted by the holy ghost and Heavenly Father told her how to build her son a hip. She remained a faithful member of the church for the rest of her life.

Weekly Value Spotlight Challenge: Faith

This week, I would like to challenge you all to work on faith. You see, each week I am going to challenge you to work on one of the young women values. This week, I am going to challenge you to work on developing your faith. If you are working on your ten hour project for faith, you can work on that. You can do one or two of the value experiences in your personal progress book. Some easy ways to develop faith is daily prayer and scripture study. Look over conference talks or in the New Era or Ensign magazine. There are lots of ways you can develop your faith.

 Ask your parents or another adult what you can do to develop your faith. Ask them what experiences they had that has built their faith. If you haven't already, write down your testimony. Better yet, share your testimony with someone who does not belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or even with friends and family. During the week, I will post experiences I have had that have built my faith, or maybe a story of someone who had a lot of faith. I plan to also try and build my faith this week too. At the end of the week, I want you to report your progress, either as a comment or to someone. I will report my progress at the end of the week along with next week's challenge!

Our First Post

Just checking it all out...and we hope it looks SWEET!!!!