I have had some really deep thoughts about this great in 8
weeks program. I love symbolism and I
love finding types of Christ and things relating to the plan of salvation.
Focusing on this program so much I was able to see lots of symbolism. First of all I like to be accountable. I like to be able to quantitatively look at
the good my choices are producing and see improvement. I like to be free to choose and this program
is not restrictive. You can spend your
time anyway you want or eat whatever you want you just have to be accountable
for it. I like being able to see how I
have used my time during the day. At the
end of the week I could see how much I read my scriptures, prayed and
exercised. I could reflect on how my
week went, how I feel, how well I handled disappointment or challenges and see
if there was a positive or negative correlation to how I spent my time or what
I ate.
I am a point hound. I
don’t get any reward for getting the most points or hitting a certain
level. But marking down points on a
piece of paper was rewarding enough. I
have a hard time remembering to take my vitamin. Even when I remember and I am in the kitchen
I talk myself out of it. How crazy it
that? But because I could get two points
a day for it, you bet I took my vitamin daily almost without fail. Sometimes
there are things in life that are good for us and we know it but for some
reason we “forget” to include it in our day, prayer, complimenting others,
smiling, showering. Showing love to
others is like vitamins are to my body, it nourishes me and I need to focus on
expressing love, acceptance and satisfaction with those I profess to love.
Focusing on points and setting goals to reach a point level
really kept me doing good things with my time, especially my personal
worship. It also helped me look ahead
and plan what I was going to do to earn all the points I could that week and
then review at the beginning of each day my goals and make time for them. The same week I chose to make it a goal to
reach 800 is the week that you could get 5 points for personal prayer, up to 15
points each day. I almost missed this
fine print. I thought to myself has that
always been there? I checked back over the past weeks and nope, this week it
was an extra. So I made sure I said personal
prayers 3 times a day. I almost always
pray once, often twice but much less often 3 times. I will say a quick prayer in my heart at
different times of the day but this specific week I made sure I got down on my
knees 3 different times each day. For my diligence I got more than points
awarded to me for doing that.
I laugh with how honest I kept myself. I mean I would not give myself points if I
didn’t fit the letter of the law so to speak.
I did not give myself much wiggle room.
I held myself to a high standard and would not cheat to give me
points. I find it funny because no one
else would see the papers, I wasn’t in competition with anyone, I was just
trying to be my best. Only the Lord and
I knew. I knew if I cheated it would
only hurt me and who I was becoming. There
are things only God and I see so there is room for plenty of justification, or
hiding bad choices. And that is the point, in life my integrity, or lack of it
only hurts me.
I also found it
interesting the week I had a goal to hit 800 and accomplished it, one of the
first things I noticed is that I was only 26 points away from getting 900. Immediately my inner thoughts said “if only I
would have done this or that or not done this I could have got 900 easy.” That was my perfectionist personality kicking
in. I did have a brief moment of
victory, good job Heather, but then my mind went to “now what could I have
don’t to do better”. I did stop myself before
it went too far and said out loud “I am proud of you, you worked hard and
sacrificed and did the best you could, you have to make choices with how you
spend your time and you cannot do it all, be ok with what is.”
And so I was and decided to take it easy the last week. I am letting my good habits I have formed
ride me through to the end, but I am not as vigilant about getting 46 minutes
of exercise or 30+ minutes of scripture reading. If I only get 32 minutes of exercise, hey I
exercised. If 17 minutes of scripture
time was all I found worked into my day, I was not going to sacrifice family
time or needs to squirrel away and read 13 more minutes. I am not eating after 8, I am trying to get
all my servings of fruits and vegetables and drink water. I make sure I pray and read scriptures and
take a walk. I have learned that those
are the things that make the most difference to me in how I feel and how I cope
with life.
Just like with this program I am sometimes too hard on
myself in that I expect myself to be progressing toward perfection at a faster
pace. I analyze/criticize what I could
be doing better without really giving myself the acknowledgement and pat on the
back I need in recognition of all that I have already become. I fail to see that I have already done so
much with the talents God has given me, I have and continue to fulfill my
patriarchal blessing. I do feel the Lord
is pleased with my efforts and is tickled with my victories and smiles in my
direction often. He also knows I will
turn to Him when I have a bad week and not let myself get too discouraged and
just give up.
I imagine we lost a lot of sisters along the way who started
this program but for one reason or another did not make it a serious part of
their life and stopped doing it. Maybe
it wasn’t the right time for them to focus on this right now, we can only do so
much, but there is a life lesson here.
Written into the program were days that we could earn points for calling
a team member to encourage them or tell them something that was working well
for you. The program has built in help
in that we were organized into teams. We
were suppose to encourage each other and earn points for it. You had to call your team leader each week and
report your points for the week. I found
this so helpful. I was not in this
alone, other women were taking this challenge as well and we were all improving
ourselves from differing staring points at our own pace. I learned from my team leader to focus on one
big change a week and then add another and another.
One of the biggest lesson to me during this whole experience
and likeness to the Gospel was the daily point earners each day from the category
in the middle. I could get points each
day for obeying the word of wisdom (not smoking or drinking) and eating all my
fruits and veggies and personal prayer. But
I could not make up points from missing them the day before, or get extra
points for the next day if I read scriptures for more than the 30 minutes I
could get points for. Much like the manna
in the wilderness that the children of Israel had to collect daily, so were the
personal choices that made up my sustenance.
The Lord forbade them to pick up more that they could eat in one day, if
they gathered more or kept leftovers it would spoil. What if they could stockpile it, and then not
work for several days?; they could get lazy, out of the habit of daily
work. What would they do with their new
found free time while everyone else was collecting manna, would they use it for
good, or to satisfy their whims or lusts? Then would be hard to get back to the
work of collecting food when their pile ran out? Maybe it is the same with me, I need a daily
dose of personal worship, exercise, nutrition to diligently be moving forward
filling my life with good things. One
day I would not notice a difference, maybe even two or three, but I would be
losing the habit of daily scripture reading and praying and be making excuses. Almost imperceptibly I would feel less close
to God, less of His influence, less whisperings of the Spirit, more left to myself. One hour of scripture reading one day does
not count for 2 days of reading 30 minutes.
I think it’s the frequent intervals more than the marathon of time. Daily worship gives me needed daily vision
and points the intentions of my heart in the right direction. (ha ha, I said points, think I am obsessed?)
Overall I have learned much, I have been reminded that I
cannot do everything and its ok, I do not have to do everything to be filling
my life with good things. I have learned
to focus on 1 or 2 things a week and get relatively good at them, then add more
good things in instead of getting overwhelmed by trying to add them all at the
same time. I have learned that I cannot
wait till the end of the day or the next to recap the choices I have made, I
need to record or account for them daily.
I have learned that to focus on a life changing program like this I have
to keep it in front of me. By that I
mean I cannot tuck the pink papers away in a drawer or file. I need to keep them out, on my nightstand, on
the kitchen counter, or on the desk where I can see them. I took them with me in my purse to pick up my
kids or anywhere I thought I would have a minute to record my choices so far
for the day. Keeping it always before my
eyes kept it in my remembrance and helped me focus. I continually reviewed all the good choices I
could be making.
It is the same way with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If I do not keep the words of the Apostles
and Prophets always before my face and in my life filling my time practicing
the principles they teach, I will not shape my life around their teachings,
which are the teachings of Christ.
While I am ready to be done focusing my daily life around
these pink papers, I am grateful I took the challenge and did it and finished
it and was diligent, not perfect, but diligent.
8 weeks is a long time. I am glad
it was 8 weeks although secretly I was ready to be done after week 6. Not only does Great in 6 not sound as
rhythmic as great in 8, it also gave me more weeks to mess up and be able to
try again. It gave me weeks where I did
not feel good and needed to rest. It
gave me time to develop more than one or two good habits and gave me time to
complete many personal goals since you get to focus on a different personal
goal each week with a few extra thrown on top.
In short, it game me time to keep trying to do better and the end did
not come before I had had my share of successes and failures. So it is with the coming of the Lord or with
the timing or our lives, we will have enough time, if we stay in the process
and don’t give up, to work out our own salvation. The Lord will not cut us off if we are
sincerely and earnestly seeking the kingdom.
He understands bad days, and not feeling good, and even having a spell
of rebelliousness. But if we continue to
refocus each week and start again, there will be just enough beginnings that we
might have a happy ending.
I hope that my team learned from their successes and
failures doing this program as well and it will be a life awakening experience
for them as it has been for me.
