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Faith #1

For anyone who is not familiar with Personal Progress, it is a goal-setting program for 12-18 year old girls who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. There are 8 values: faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity, and virtue. The young women participating in the program complete value experiences designed to increase their understanding of each of the values, and increase their testimonies of Jesus Christ. After the girls complete six experiences for each value (four for virtue), they complete a value project for each value, requiring at least 10 hours of work. There is a beautiful medallion that is awarded to each girl who completes the requirements, and an "honor bee" award for those who go beyond the minimum requirements. While I did complete a few of the goals as a youth, I didn't complete very many, and the program has been changed a little since I was 18. So, I decided to start from scratch and complete all of the value experiences and projects from the most recent version of the program. I actually started my personal progress about a month ago, so I have a couple of goals completed. The journal is such an important part of the process, that I'm including the entries from each of my goals. Here is the first goal from the Personal Progress book for the first value: Faith.
"The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Learn about faith from the scriptures and the living prophets. Read Hebrews 11; Alma 32:17-43; Ether 12:6-22; and Joseph Smith--History 1:11-20. Read two general conference talks on faith. Exercise your own faith by establishing a habit of prayer in your life. Begin by regularly saying your morning and evening prayers. After three weeks of following this pattern, discuss with a parent or leader what you have learned about faith and how daily personal prayer has strengthened your faith. In your journal express your feelings about faith and prayer."
And here is my journal entry for the experience:
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
I remember this experience from my Personal Progress book as a Young Woman. I remember looking at the requirement to pray regularly for 3 weeks, and feeling like it was impossible. I realize now that for years (until just a few days ago) I had been misreading the requirement. The goal states "beging by regularly saying your morning and evening prayers. After three weeks of following thei pattern. . ." I read those words several times as I tried to decide which goal to choose, bit in my mind, what I interpreted was "be perfect in saying your morning and evening prayers for three weeks." I was too discouraged by that expectation--even though it was my own expectation of myself--that I never tried this goal as a youth, and even in my desire to finish my Personal Progress now as an adult, I was caught in the trap of thinking I needed to be perfect. Thank goodness I started this goal anyway! I realized after writing in my personal journal that Heavenly Father makes covenants--promises--with imperfect people, knowing that they are imperfect, and still expecting to fulfill His part of the contract. He isn't making a covenant with me expecting me to fail and therefore to not have to fulfill His part. God expects to give me all He has promised me, and He wants to help me get everything He has promised me! Yes, I need to be faithful and do my best, but He wants me to succeed! I have fallen short in so many areas, but that is the point of this life--falling short and recognizing it and striving to become better. My faith has increased in the last few days simply by realizing that God knows that I am imperfect and He wants to bless me anyway. He doesn't hold my imperfection against me, He provides a way for me to overcome it, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
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