Disciple leadership

 This week we focused on Disciple leadership. This week really touched my soul. Social Innovation is fascinating. It takes thinking outside the box for sure but it also takes Charity. The pure love of Christ. Having that love for someone or something like the Earth, motivates us to care for the person behind the issue we are concerned with. It really takes focus, drive and passion. You have to have grit keep at it. There will be many challenges in whatever our endeavors are. However when we lean on the Lord we can, along with his help see miracles happen. 

I love this quote I read this week: President Ezra Taft Benson said: “The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.” This is so true. I have seen this in my own life and in many other people's lives. Christ literally takes us from nothing and molds us into something! So grateful that he does if we allow him.

I personally hope to make a difference in the foster care system. I have two foster daughters. The system is really broken and I see a need to fix it. This class has helped me to begin to understand how change comes about. 

Self Reliance

 This week we learned about self reliance and microfinance. I loved this weeks material. I love the doctrine of self-reliance. This doctrine that helps us care for ourselves is one that helps everyone. Being able to care for ourselves makes us feel valued and a contributor to society. I know this to be true. 

I love the video we watched by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel peace prize winner in 2006. He talked about a bonsai tree and if we took a seed from the tallest tree in the forest and planted it in a small flower pot, it would not grow tall like the tree it came from. it would stay small. Even thought the small tree looks just like the small one, it would never grow like it because it was contained in a small pot like a bonsai tree. He compared this to poor people. He said they were not lazy or dumb, or anything else other people think of them, they just needed the room, the space, to grow.

I have learned how to be self reliant over time. I was raised poor and for much of my married life I lived poor. After my divorce I decided I would not live like that ever again. I lived within my budget and started back to school. I started my own business and provided for myself. I am not rich, but I have no debt besides my home. No credit card debt, no car loan debt. None. I want to keep it that way. I am grateful to learn these lessons and apply them in my life.