This is Day 10 in a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
I have many choices. I also have troubles that oppose my state of peace and joy. As I walk in step with Christ he lightens the load I must carry, removes my desire for evil and changes my weakness into strong characteristics. This is how my faith in him grows. I see the change inside my heart. To learn more...
1. Read the Speech:
Speech
2. Take the Quiz
Quiz
3. Personal Challenge Statement: I am turning away from evil by faith in Jesus Christ
4. Goal: Choose three ways to take tiny steps towards a closer relationship with the Lord.
5. Dig Deeper:
"Do You See Small Enough?"
"You Can Have What You Want or You Can Have Something Better"
"True and Perfect Worship"
This is Day 9 in a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
Life has a purpose. That purpose determines the scope of our individual lives and the fate of nations. Making choices and learning the consequences is part of our experience here. Accepting Christ is one of the choices we have. This speech is about a few aspects of Jesus Christ's life and how he mentors us in our life individually. If you've never heard Neal A Maxwell, now deceased, he was a pleasure to listen to and his ideas were very profound.
1. Read the Speech:
Speech
2. Take the Quiz
Quiz
3. Personal Challenge Statement: I am grateful for Jesus Christ's mentorship.
4. Goal: Even though I may not see the marvelous pattern and divine design in my life, I will have faith in the Lord's timetable.
5. Dig Deeper:
"When God Seems Distant"
"Who's Got the Reins?"
"One Fold, One Shepherd"
This is Day 8 in a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
The challenges we face in life are real. All of us must earn our food and rent. We all have relationships to maintain. We have to keep up our health. There is entropy to fight with. Today, I present to you a speech that contains the ideas whereby anyone can maximize their productivity. These ideas are not new but they are profound. To get the most out of them...
1. Read the Speech
Speech
2. Take the Quiz
Quiz
3. Personal Challenge Statement: In humility, I see how Christ is a source of strength to me and I believe he will stand side by side with me as I face life.
4. Goal: I will study the pattern of Christ to acquire new tools for the challenges I face in life.
5. Dig Deeper:
"God Will Have a Tried People"
"The Opening and Closing of Doors"
"An Anchor to the Souls of Men"
This is Day 7 in a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
Life is a series of tests. Our response determines who we become and how our character develops. "Some of these tests are temptations to sin. Some are mortal challenges apart from personal sin. Some are very great. Some are minor. Some are continuous, and some are mere episodes. None of us is exempt. Opposition permits us to grow toward what our Heavenly Father would have us become." (Dallin H Oaks) We sometimes get discouraged by the nature of the opposition we face. It is easy to blame God for allowing our test to occur but it is better to take responsibility and rise to the challenge. To get a better idea of what exactly is opposition and why we face it...
1. Read the speech
Speech
2. Take the quiz
Quiz
3. Personal Challenge Statement: With God, I am stronger than all the forces that oppose me.
4. Goal: I will list five ways that I have overcome my opposition. I will also acknowledge at least one challenge that I am struggling to overcome.
5. Dig deeper into another blog post on this topic:
Why does God Allow Bad Things to Happen
Image Credit:
Flickr/Alberto G
This is Day 6 of a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
This series of posts began with the immense value of the soul because that is a great place to begin. With a divine identity of inestimable worth, we begin to understand why God made a Plan of Happiness by which all his children come to Earth, learn and grow, and then return and report. Life is full of choices and challenges. We've talked about staying balance and now we're going to talk about the faith to set out and achieve success. Faith is a principle of action and when applied to true principles it adds strength to our character. A crisis is a defining moment. A person with faith and integrity is much more likely to succeed without becoming fearful and defensive. This speech is called The Transforming Power of Faith and Character by Richard G Scott.
1. Read the Speech (this speech is available in other languages by clicking on the link and then looking at the icon in the upper right corner which says "worldwide")
Speech
2. Take the Quiz
Quiz
3. Personal Challenge Statement: I am working on becoming a person of integrity by choosing to apply true principles in daily life.
4. Goal: I will make a plan to practice faith on a daily basis.
5. Dig deeper by reading other posts on this topic:
Faith Workout
Faith is the Conviction that Moves Us
You Can Have What you Want or You Can Have Something Better
Image credit:
Flickr/BK
This is Day 5 in a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
Life is a journey. I begin as a child and grow into adulthood. My identity is formed by my childhood experiences together with my emergence from youth into adulthood and the definitions that I accept about myself. My identity is strongest when it incorporates a knowledge of my divine worth. Next I must have a safe harbor so that the inevitable storms can't sink my ship. Today I want to discuss the idea of balance. No ship will stay afloat if it has too much weight on one side. Balance is an oft-debated topic and it would be difficult to summarize the theories out there. Today I will propose the ideas for staying balanced from the speech The Tradition of a Balanced, Righteous Life by L Tom Perry.
1. Read the Speech
Speech
2. Take the 5-question quiz
Quiz
3. Personal Challenge Statement: I can succeed in all aspects of life as I balance my efforts to feel, learn, do and share.
4. Goal: I will evaluate my life and focus on one way that I can be more balanced.
5. Dig Deeper into other blog posts on this topic:
Prioritize Spirituality
The Greatest Work
Spiritual Self Reliance
This is Day 4 of a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
The storms of life are strong and often leave me feeling vulnerable. I haven't capsized yet, but I surely have felt on the brink of failure and at the end of my resolve. Sometimes I feel so discouraged that I wonder if God cares. This speech is for all of us who feel overwhelmed by life. It explains why God allows us to suffer. It asserts that we are stronger than we think. I believe that we must know and be able to trust in God and others who form a support network in order to survive and thrive. No one is strong enough by themselves, but together we can be courageous.
1. Read the speech
Speech
2. Take the 5-question quiz
Quiz
3. Personal Challenge Statement: I trust in my support network to come to my aid if ever I reach the limit of my ability.
4. Goal: Pick a personal struggle and list three strengths you have that can be applied to it. Use ingenuity and describe three outside resources who might have tools or expertise who you could ask for help in dealing with your struggle. Write out a specific prayer request by which your faith can be activated in addressing this issue.
5. Dig deeper into other post on this topic.
Transcend Problems Spiritually
The Body of Christ Analogy
When God Seems Distant
This is Day 3 of a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
It is important to know there is a purpose to this mortal life. A meaningful purpose to life means that no effort is wasted and no challenge is pointless. Everyone who has lived knows how challenging life is. Yet not everyone knows that their decisions matter. The steering wheel is not controlled by an unknown destiny. While there may be circumstances outside our control, each of us has a steering wheel that determines how we perceive what is happening. When we understand that there is purpose to life, it is easier to believe that what is happening is for a greater good. It is possible to explain how a challenging situation may lead to something good. Those with faith, explain life in this positive way and good things do come to them. In fact, good arrives whenever we look for it. It is everywhere. The speech I have for you today was given by a man who has this positive way of looking at life. His example will show you how to think this way.
1. Read the speech
Speech
2. Take the 5-question quiz
Quiz
3. Personal Challenge Statement
Despite the turmoil of daily living, I will choose to have faith that everything in life can teach me how to be a better person.
4. Goal: Explain one of my most challenging life experiences in a positive way emphasizing the choices that I still can make to learn and grow.
5. Dig Deeper by reading another speech by the same person
"Yellow Canaries with Gray on Their Wings"
Image credit: Walking the Labyrinth by GPS/Flickr
This is Day 2 in a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
While the beginning of spirituality is in understanding one's true identity. The next crucial step is to know of a purpose to life and to believe it is greater than just survival of the fittest. God has shared with prophets the purpose of life. It is bigger than love, the greatest virtue. It spans an eternity of time and potential. God's purpose is to give humans immortality and eternal life. He takes each little human heart and change it so that it has the capacity to love in God's way. Then he makes it unbreakable (immortality) and able to love for eternity.
1. Read the speech
Always in the Middle
2. Take the 5-question quiz
Quiz
3. Personal Challenge Statement
Think about what gives your life meaning. Try to encapsulate that idea in a personal mission statement.
4. Set a goal to do something related to your personal mission statement in the next week. I'd love to hear about your goal. Post your progress in the comments.
5. Dig deeper into other blog posts on this topic:
Why does God Allow Bad Things to Happen?
Choose to Be Happy
This is the beginning of a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
The beginning of spirituality lies in a correct understanding of identity. The value of one soul is great. Yet it remains a challenge to believe in the value of my own soul. Identity is formed during the preverbal time of life and conclusions from that time affect many later decisions. This speech, "The Worth of Souls is Great," by Kristin L Matthews is long but worth the time. It is a topic that cannot be ignored. Loving self precedes loving others. It is that important.
1. Read the Speech
"The Worth of Souls is Great" by Kristin L Matthews
2. Take the 5-Question Quiz
Quiz
3. Personal Challenge Statement
I will show that I value myself by not trying to change to fit in socially
or:
Write your own...
4. Write a goal to reduce the amount of self criticism you allow. Replace your critical voice with an encouraging one.
5. Dig Deeper into other blog posts on this topic:
Identify Yourself
Ye Are Gods
