Our YW did New Beginnings during Sacrament today. I was asked to speak on Personal Progress & how it relates to the theme & how it brings the girls closer to Christ.
I was given 4-5 minutes to speak on a topic that i could easily speak 45 minutes on.
I told the Bishop if I went over my time to kick me.
I'm going to talk super fast to squeeze a lot of info into an itty bitty amount of time.
My topic is on what I feel is the heart & soul of the YW program. The personal progress program.
In YW we really try to stress to the girls their DN & IW. We want them to each understand that they are here for a reason, they each have a purpose. They are not just here to take up space on the planet.
I believe Sis F will be going into more detail about the 2016 theme later, but basically it is to "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ".
But what does Forward mean?
I want to try something that Steven Covey often uses. Everyone close their eyes & point to true north. Now open your eyes. Isn't it interesting that everyone is pointing in a different direction. Why? Who decideds where North is? The richest guy in the room? The strongest? The most popular? NO. North is north no matter what we think about it. It is not subject to popular opinion.
To know what forward is, you must have a destination.
IN this church we are lucky & it is ok to stop & ask for directions.
Thankfully Nephi gives us our directions & destination when he tells us to "Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ".
What does steadfastness mean?
It means fixed in direction.
And in our case, our direction is heading towards Christ.
One of the many ways we have been given to help keep us focused on & moving forward towards Christ is the personal progress program.
The personal progress program is not a program that is separate & different from dialy life. It teaches how to take spiritual goals & use them in our dialy lives.
When you actively work on your personal progress you learn to develop righteous daily routines (personal prayer, scripture study, gratitude & so forth). When you do small things consistently, they become part of who you are & they change you, just as we learn in Alma 37:6.
In life we are either holding tight to the iron rod & pressing forward or we are wondering.
If we are wondering we dont' know where we are going & where we will end up.
But when we are holding the rod & pressing forward moving towards christ you know where you are going.
In Lehis dream, there is 1 destination. It is the best destination.
The temple is the reason for all that we do in the YW program.
(Show cover of the YW book)
The cover of teh personal progress book has a temple on it
This is to remind you that by working on personal progress you are preparing to make & keep covenants in the temple someday.
I am a very visual person & I always loved the inside of the book. It always reminded me why the temple was so important.
(Open book & show picture of just christ)
Our ultimate goal is to get to Christ. Without the temple, this is not possible.
(Show picture of temple over Christ)
We get to Christ through the temple.
And we get to the temple by living the values found in this book.
(Show value ribbons)
When you complete each of the value experiences & the project you receive a value ribbon for your scriptures.
Each value has an assigned color. When you finish all 8 values you will have a rainbow of ribbons for your scriptures.
(Show medallion)
After you have completed all 8 values, you will have completed the program & then will receive you Young Womanhood recognition which is a medallion.
The design has changed over the years. But right now it comes in silver or gold (girls choice) with the SL temple on it & a ruby with symbolizes the value virtue.
You may know Noelle Pikus Pace. She is the 2014 silver medal olympian in Skeleton. She is a member of the church & a Stake YW president.
In her olympic photos you see her wearing her silver medal. But if you look close you will see she is also wearing her YW torch & medallion. The medallion is a symbol of years worth of personal goal setting & faith bulding efforts of the personal progress program.
In a Deseret News interview she said "I hope that the YW & YM can see that it is really important, more than ever today, to stand for something. To stand up for your values & beliefs. Even if you are the only one standing. There are always others who can help support you. Heavenly Father is always right there by your side.
(Show honor bee)
When you are done with personal progress, like everything in the church, there is always more to be done. You have 2 choices. You can repeat the personal progress program or (what is strongly encouraged) you can work on your honor bee.
The honor bee requires an additional 40 hours of service & to re-read the book of mormon.
So why are we presenting this in sacrament meeting? Why not just go over this in YW? Because this is actually a program that ANYONE can participate in, even non-members.
If you didn't have the opportunity to earn your YW recognition when you were a youth... you can do it now.
If you did earn it as a youth, you can re-earn it.
If you have a daughter in the YW program, now is a great time to work on it.
If you have your medallion, you can also work on your honor bee.
I earned my first medallion as a Laurel. Then I re-earned it when I was put back in the YW program as a leader. I just earned my first honor bee New Years Eve 2015. It is never too late to start.
If you have a daughter in YW, this is not something she needs to do alone. Parents should be heavily involved in helping their daughter with her personal progress. It is a great opportunity to help strengthen your relationship as daughter & parents & if you get the whole family involved... the family bonds also.
Sis Ardith G Kapp who was the General YW President when i was in YW said: I think that one of the greatest probems facing youth in the world today is not understanding who they are."
And that is exactly what the personal progress program is designed to do.
I'm going to talk super fast to squeeze a lot of info into an itty bitty amount of time.
My topic is on what I feel is the heart & soul of the YW program. The personal progress program.
In YW we really try to stress to the girls their DN & IW. We want them to each understand that they are here for a reason, they each have a purpose. They are not just here to take up space on the planet.
I believe Sis F will be going into more detail about the 2016 theme later, but basically it is to "press forward with a steadfastness in Christ".
But what does Forward mean?
I want to try something that Steven Covey often uses. Everyone close their eyes & point to true north. Now open your eyes. Isn't it interesting that everyone is pointing in a different direction. Why? Who decideds where North is? The richest guy in the room? The strongest? The most popular? NO. North is north no matter what we think about it. It is not subject to popular opinion.
To know what forward is, you must have a destination.
IN this church we are lucky & it is ok to stop & ask for directions.
Thankfully Nephi gives us our directions & destination when he tells us to "Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ".
What does steadfastness mean?
It means fixed in direction.
And in our case, our direction is heading towards Christ.
One of the many ways we have been given to help keep us focused on & moving forward towards Christ is the personal progress program.
The personal progress program is not a program that is separate & different from dialy life. It teaches how to take spiritual goals & use them in our dialy lives.
When you actively work on your personal progress you learn to develop righteous daily routines (personal prayer, scripture study, gratitude & so forth). When you do small things consistently, they become part of who you are & they change you, just as we learn in Alma 37:6.
In life we are either holding tight to the iron rod & pressing forward or we are wondering.
If we are wondering we dont' know where we are going & where we will end up.
But when we are holding the rod & pressing forward moving towards christ you know where you are going.
In Lehis dream, there is 1 destination. It is the best destination.
The temple is the reason for all that we do in the YW program.
(Show cover of the YW book)
The cover of teh personal progress book has a temple on it
This is to remind you that by working on personal progress you are preparing to make & keep covenants in the temple someday.
I am a very visual person & I always loved the inside of the book. It always reminded me why the temple was so important.
(Open book & show picture of just christ)
Our ultimate goal is to get to Christ. Without the temple, this is not possible.
(Show picture of temple over Christ)
We get to Christ through the temple.
And we get to the temple by living the values found in this book.
(Show value ribbons)
When you complete each of the value experiences & the project you receive a value ribbon for your scriptures.
Each value has an assigned color. When you finish all 8 values you will have a rainbow of ribbons for your scriptures.
(Show medallion)
After you have completed all 8 values, you will have completed the program & then will receive you Young Womanhood recognition which is a medallion.
The design has changed over the years. But right now it comes in silver or gold (girls choice) with the SL temple on it & a ruby with symbolizes the value virtue.
You may know Noelle Pikus Pace. She is the 2014 silver medal olympian in Skeleton. She is a member of the church & a Stake YW president.
In her olympic photos you see her wearing her silver medal. But if you look close you will see she is also wearing her YW torch & medallion. The medallion is a symbol of years worth of personal goal setting & faith bulding efforts of the personal progress program.
In a Deseret News interview she said "I hope that the YW & YM can see that it is really important, more than ever today, to stand for something. To stand up for your values & beliefs. Even if you are the only one standing. There are always others who can help support you. Heavenly Father is always right there by your side.
(Show honor bee)
When you are done with personal progress, like everything in the church, there is always more to be done. You have 2 choices. You can repeat the personal progress program or (what is strongly encouraged) you can work on your honor bee.
The honor bee requires an additional 40 hours of service & to re-read the book of mormon.
So why are we presenting this in sacrament meeting? Why not just go over this in YW? Because this is actually a program that ANYONE can participate in, even non-members.
If you didn't have the opportunity to earn your YW recognition when you were a youth... you can do it now.
If you did earn it as a youth, you can re-earn it.
If you have a daughter in the YW program, now is a great time to work on it.
If you have your medallion, you can also work on your honor bee.
I earned my first medallion as a Laurel. Then I re-earned it when I was put back in the YW program as a leader. I just earned my first honor bee New Years Eve 2015. It is never too late to start.
If you have a daughter in YW, this is not something she needs to do alone. Parents should be heavily involved in helping their daughter with her personal progress. It is a great opportunity to help strengthen your relationship as daughter & parents & if you get the whole family involved... the family bonds also.
Sis Ardith G Kapp who was the General YW President when i was in YW said: I think that one of the greatest probems facing youth in the world today is not understanding who they are."
And that is exactly what the personal progress program is designed to do.
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