Saturday, November 14, 2015

Teach A Friend & Learning Report

I taught my mom what I learned in Lesson 8 during the two hours we spent in a traffic jam and I began by saying that life can be prepared for, but planning should not overrule being prepared, as plans do not always turn out as planned. Preparation helps people make the best of what life gives them even if things don't end up going according to plan.

To my comments about needing to always be prepared because life doesn't always turn out as planned, Mom said that life is not guaranteed and had she really thought about it, she could have been better prepared for Dad's sudden illness and death.

I then talked about how D&C 88:124 says that we should not waste our time and whatever God gave us, or else we could and will lose them. Wasting our time results in us losing our time and whatever gifts God may have given us, as He will take away what we do not use.

After doing some exercises as a class to this Blessercize video that the lead students for the week found on YouTube, it was then said that exercise ties into self-reliance because exercise helps one to be healthy and one cannot be self-reliant if they are not healthy.

It was then asked of us what event has positively shaped our life in terms of self-reliance and I said that my mission, a year long service in the local Welfare Services Field Office and Bishop's Storehouse, positively shaped my life. In my mission, I learned that I could be self-reliant by gaining confidence from helping other people and feeding off their joy. I also helped others to be self-reliant through training I provided to new missionaries and also helping others who had utilized the storehouse to volunteer there so they could properly express their gratitude for it.

Mom said the event that shaped her life is knowing that we were prepared for everything that happened to our family when the 1995 flood hit High River, as we ended up having to evacuate at 5:30 in the morning and go to a friend's house that was on higher ground. Mom had a 72 hour kit prepared and we were able to take it with us when we had to leave in a hurry, Many years later when the family lived in Raymond and there was a fire on the Ridge, Mom said she helped organize and settle people at the Church and also had supplies for both people and pets prepared just in case leaving had to be done in a hurry.

I then summarized the previous concepts that had been learned in Pathways, as the lead students had summarized them during class for everyone's benefit. The previous concepts were the Learning Model/Honor Code, Disciple Leadership, Lifelong Learning, Academic Planning/Career Exploration, Decision Making, Time Management, and Information Literacy/Academic Planning.

When it came to discussing the previous concepts, Mom said that each of the lessons has strengthened her in a lot of ways and really made her think. She also said that the lessons have caused her to think how everything in her life has affected her and how it has made her a better person.

My focus then turned to D&C 29:35 and how it says that God's commandments are eternal and are given for both the body and spirit. In response to the words in D&C 29:35, Mom said that we as LDS people have the sure knowledge of not only the commandments, but also of their significance in the eternal spectrum. She said that it's something we need to consider as we have not only been taught many useful things, but that all things have a purpose. She added that God put things on the earth for the good of man.

During class, only four principles of self-reliance were touched upon: education, health, home storage, and work and I came up with how they connected to self-reliance. Education teaches you skills for work from the beginning of your life and continues to teach you useful things whether it comes from inside or outside of the classroom. Health is important as you need to be healthy in order to be self-reliant. Home Storage is needed because it helps us to take care of ourselves when circumstances don't allow us to rely on others or stores. Employment teaches people how to work whether it be through paid work, through volunteer opportunities, or even through school. People on disability or welfare that cannot work can still volunteer to show gratitude and productivity.

Mom's thoughts on Home Storage were that we might not have a lot of good stuff in our storage a lot of the time, but we have life-sustaining stuff. She once had a bishop from a storehouse tell her that food from the storehouse isn't there to sustain lifestyle, but to sustain life.

In class, we then got into groups, picked random objects from a bag, and then discussed how it related to self-reliance. The group I was in picked an umbrella and I then likened it to the four self-reliance principles that we had discussed in class. In terms of education, the umbrella teaches us how to protect ourselves from rain. In terms of health, the umbrella teaches us how to deal with a rainy day physically, mentally, and spiritually and the lesson there is to turn to whatever good thing may give us comfort in hard times. When it comes to Home Storage, an umbrella is a reminder that rainy days do come and that we are capable and commanded to prepare for them. It also teaches us that employment helps us to have a way to prepare for the rainy days when they do come.

I then read Mom three quotes that I got in class about how self-reliance intertwines with service and interdependency and that even though man can be self-reliant, nobody is good at everything. We need to be in a position where we are spiritually prepared to help others when the need arises. In terms of interdependency, we need to be willing to take time to give of ourselves and also be humble enough to accept help when we struggle, as God often offers help to us by way of others desiring to be of service. We need one another to serve as a strength to others and we need others to serve as strengths to our weaknesses and shortcomings. All of us need God to help us with that which we cannot handle on our own and with the help of each other and we especially need Christ when it comes to being able to let go of our sins and our ability to move beyond them.

Mom said that in terms of service, the greatest act of service comes to each of us each week when the sacrament is served, as through the sacrament, we serve one another and we are allowing the Savior to serve us when we partake. She mentioned that on her computer screen, she has a picture of people passing the sacrament and that the Savior turns out to be one of those passing the sacrament. Mom added that we need to keep in mind on a daily basis ways that we can do service unto others.

Learning Report
Looking back at the previous lessons, I have to admit that the most difficult thing for me was admitting to myself that I still had so much to learn about things I had been taught since I was old enough to understand things for myself. I have learned much through gospel education and through the example of my mother and other faithful individuals in my life, but as it says in the lesson about lifelong learning, there is always something new you can learn about a subject you may have knowledge about. A long time ago, I heard someone say that if you are done learning, you are dead and I suppose if you stopped learning because it was too much work, your brain and spirit would eventually waste away from lack of use. I've always loved learning new things and I am very aware that if I do not keep learning, I will eventually forget what I know and slip into ignorance. Even though I have a disability, it is very possible for me to learn whatever I want to learn, it just takes a little extra effort and application for me to get the hang of it. I am grateful that Pathways has helped me to learn new ways to learn and appreciate the freedom and opportunities I have to keep learning. I am also grateful that because of the Atonement and Plan of Salvation, I can learn much not only in this life, but also in the next.

The most important thing I want to remember from this lesson is the talk by Marion G. Romney titled 'The Nature of Self-Reliance' and it talked about how man is free to choose their way and that includes choosing to be self-reliant, as we are all invited to find our own way in mortality and how can we do that if we don't know how to care for ourselves and meet the needs that will come during our journey through mortality? We need to learn how to and actively take care of ourselves so that we can be in a position to care for others through the stewardships we will be given in the Church and also in our own families of creation. In relation to that, I also liked what D&C 29:34-35 said about how we MUST be responsible for ourselves and cannot rely on another's testimony to get us through trying times, as there may be times when we will have very little but the spiritual reserves we have been taught to build. If we have none, then we will feel the consequences.

The haves should teach the have-nots how to become haves by first showing them charity so that they can know what it feels like to be loved and then help them to know what it means to share that love through service, as they then can know that their contributions can benefit yet another in need and that they are worth something to God, so much so that Christ freed them from their burdens. the Lord's laws, including self-reliance, are permanent and therefore, the responsibility we have to learn and actively take care of ourselves is also permanent, as it is an eternal teaching and will continue with us after death.

Discussion Board Responses
In terms of asking for help and also in terms of giving help, we need to be humble enough to not only give of our excess, but to receive from the excess of others when our resources have run dry even after all of our best effort has been put forward. By being willing to receive help, we are showing that we are willing to allow the Lord's love to benefit us and allow Him to bless others who take the time to care. By being willing to give, we are showing gratitude for what we receive. By being willing to learn these principles, we are admitting to ourselves and to God that we can face the reality that we may very well need to use the principles of self-reliance to help ourselves one day or that we will need to act in humility and allow others and God to help us when we end up facing a time of great need.

In today's world, nobody is immune from having a time where they are in need of either personal/spiritual support or in need of physical support. All of us will go through times where we lack substance to survive or where we lack the hope to survive, but knowing that the Atonement is there and is for us to use for both sins and sorrows should give us enough comfort and courage to use it and know that we are loved unconditionally by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ no matter who we are or where we are at in our lives. We think we can rely on ourselves and that nobody else can understand what we go through, so we are afraid of asking others for help because they will not understand and judge us for being so imperfect. Christ, however, went through everything and anything that mortal man has and will gone through, so He understands and He and God are willing to listen and help by way of others when we are in need; all we have to do is ask with sincerity and be humble enough to accept loving help however it may come. We are instruments in God's hands for others as others are instruments in His hands for us.

Through the years that my brother and I were growing up, I had watched my mother and father always keep a food storage and emergency supplies handy in whatever house they happened to live in. I personally thought that having a food storage was cool, as it often had food we liked to eat in it, but I didn't know why. As I got older, however, I was taught the reason for the food storage was to have something set aside in the case of a rainy day. When I went on to the Provident Living website and also during the times I have visited the Visitor's Centers and Welfare Square in Salt Lake City, I am very amazed at the amount of effort and preparation that the Church has put into making sure that people know how to rely on themselves and also into providing access to resources that can be used if there are ever times where people cannot rely on themselves for whatever reason.

There will be times where we all need help, even if it is just needing to know how to be self-reliant, and the website has very detailed information about how to go about making yourself more self-reliant. Although we can never be fully self-reliant, as we are not good at everything and need both the Lord and others to help us when it comes to our weak areas, we can do our best to do what we can in being self-reliant. If we do what we can with what we have, we will be able to worry less about ourselves and focus more on helping others when times become difficult.


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