September Week 1

As of tomorrow, we will officially be seniors in college. I said I wasn't excited for school to start, but now I can't wait. I like that all my friends are back in Provo after being home for the summer... or in foreign countries for two years. I like that the nights are warm enough for me to stay up way too late. I like that soon I will be back in the library half-reading, half-people-watching.

As an overarching theme for the month, we wanted to focus on people- strengthening our relationships, treating everyone like a child of God. This week's goal:

Think of others first

It reminds me of a talk President Uchtdorf gave in General Conference this past fall:
"We don’t discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with an attitude of serving God and our fellowman. Humility directs our attention and love toward others and to Heavenly Father’s purposes."

Recently I've been thinking a lot about the way I've spent my free time- or rather, who I've spent it with. Meeting people isn't something that is especially difficult for me- but sometimes it comes at the expense of my more important relationships. Knowing everybody is not the same thing as being a true friend, but Christ was able to do both. And the only way He could do that was to always put the needs of others above His own.

Sometimes when I feel insecure or out of my comfort zone it is harder to open up. To believe that people who seem to already have everything would want one more friend, or that complimenting a stranger will be uplifting and not creepy. To trust that if you truly forget yourself and give away all the love you can, at the end of the day you will be left with a heart that is full and not empty.
But that's the point of the experiment- so we'll just try it and see what happens! He won't leave us comfortless- so if we pray for opportunities to serve and love others, He will give them to us! We just have to watch :)

Goals for this week:
study the scriptures every day
go to the temple
pray for opportunities/increased ability to love
serve someone every day

The Game Plan

I'll be honest: Our inspiration comes from a group of young, marriage-hungry RM boys.

No, really...
They are young, smart, fun, handsome- and they have decided they are going to be married by Summer 2012.

Hmmm, thought we. That is a little unusual. (Though let's be honest, Taylor Henderson could probably get married next week if he wanted to.)

But not necessarily a bad idea. Marriage is celestial. And it's the next big step in our lives. And although we were more hesitant to dictate matters of timing to the Lord, we decided we could at least prepare ourselves and become the kind of people we want to marry.
We wrote a long list (not included here) of the qualities most important to us in a companion. Then we focused on how we could develop those things in ourselves. To make it concrete and feasible, we broke it up into smaller weekly focuses- formulated specifically around the normal course of the semester (holidays, finals, etc.) We realize that this is by no means a "Summer of 2012" guarantee. But that's not what we're shooting for, so much as the fact that we just want to be better people.

That said... ladies and gentlemen! (aka Mom.) We are proud to present:

The Game Plan

Pick one goal a week and work on it
Effective scripture STUDY
Weekly self-analysis with journal and patriarchal blessing
Regular temple attendance
Sincere prayer:
           Pray for opportunities to develop friendships and grow as individuals
           Pray for “Thy will be done” and be willing to accept it when it comes
Daily reflection- trying to listen to the Spirit
Regular exercise and balanced eating habits
Immersing yourself in your ward
Give everybody a chance- look for the best in everybody
Do something social every week

Schedule

August
1.) Study (STUDY) scriptures
Journal and reflect
Listen for the spirit daily (meditate and reflect)

September
1.) Think about others first- pray to recognize opportunities
                                             be a good listener
2.) Care deeply about relationships-- work for them
                                                            even if inconvenient, maintain friendships, keep them deep
3.) Love to serve- pray for opportunities and recognition
4.) Be real- good communicator, honesty
5.) See the beauty in those around you- pray to see them as children of God

October
1.) See the beauty in everything- positive attitude when things go wrong
2.) Be happy with what you have- content and grateful- express it
3.) Honor our divine potential- develop talents
4.) Choose to be optimistic- look forward with faith and patience (Thy Will Be Done)

November
1.) Consecrate our time to things that really matter
2.) Be intellectually curious and discuss it with others
3.) Be a hard worker- put whole heart into whatever you’re doing
4.) Develop good friendships- reassess our most important relationships
5.) Be physically attractive- take care of our bodies- be classy.

December
1.) Hunger for the gospel- assess where we want to go, strengthen our relationship with Christ
2.) Be giving and generous-- forget ourselves during finals (People > Problems)
3.) Focus on family- be a better sister, daughter, friend.
4.) Put your whole heart in whatever you’re doing

Again, let me be honest
I'm pretty ecstatic about this.
xoxo
Lauren

P.S. Ceb-babe here- We'll be logging our weekly progress on here.  Oddly, even though I adore Taylor Henderson, I didn't know about his idea until today when Lauren mentioned it.  But I just pretended to understand, and nodded silently.  Anyway, that's why we created the blog.  Enjoy!!

hoopla!

yeah