Last week, Bishop Erickson asked me to give a talk on how Young Women’s has influenced me as a person. The young women’s program is specially designed to help teach girls going through the tough teenage years that they are divine spirit daughters of a loving Heavenly Father.
As I’ve worked on Personal Progress, I’ve learned to apply the eight Young Women values in my life.
The first lesson I learned was to always have Faith. “In Alma 32: 21 it states: “Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith, ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” Having faith is to have a belief or trust in something, especially when there is no visual evidence that it is true. Faith also includes having a positive outlook and hope for the future, no matter what trials may cross our paths. Despite my few personal trials, I’ve been able to gain more faith in the young women’s program through prayer and scripture reading. Even though I haven’t seen a heavenly being with my own eyes, I have faith that there is a Father in Heaven that loves us and looks out for us. I know for myself that every trial we successfully face will be replaced in the next life with blessings that are totally worth it.
The second lesson I learned was to recognize the divine qualities that I’ve inherited from my Father and Mother in Heaven. It’s much easier to become a better person when you grasp the fact that a royal system is still in force, even though we currently live in a free country. I’ve come to learn that everybody has divine and royal qualities passed down to them by our Heavenly Father, because he is our father and our king. How much better would we treat people if we always remembered that all women are literally princesses and all men princes? That is a question that I now aim to remind myself on a regular basis.
The third lesson, closely linked to Divine Nature, was to realize my own individual worth. D&C 18: 10 reads, “Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.” That scripture isn’t just to remind us of everyone else’s worth; it’s also meant to remind us of our own. By building up each other’s sense of worth, we learn to increase our own, to the point where we can understand that we each have different gifts and divine missions to work on and fulfill.
The fourth lesson I learned was to continually acquire knowledge. Knowledge is information, facts, ideas, truths, and principles. As I’ve increased my learning over the years, the way that I see things has changed. When we do our best to gain knowledge, we learn to see problems creatively and understand other people’s points of view. A large part of what we learn is through observation and experience, and it is up to us to utilize our past experiences to better understand each other and the world. Knowledge gives us open minds, and the young women’s program has taught me a lot and helped changed my life for the better.
The fifth lesson I learned was to try to make the best choices and be accountable for my decisions. The opportunity to choose for ourselves and have agency was the whole purpose of Heavenly Father’s plan. The Strength of Youth pamphlet teaches everything that we need to know about choosing the right: “Wrong choices delay your progression and lead to heartache and misery. Right choices lead to happiness and eternal life. That is why it is so important for you to choose what is right throughout your life… You should not blame your circumstances, your family, or your friends if you choose to disobey God’s commandments. You are a child of God with great strength. You have the ability to choose righteousness and happiness no matter what your circumstances.” I am by no means perfect, and I don’t pretend to be. However, I’ve learned through experience that making bad decisions makes me feel horrible and guilty. I’ve gained a testimony in young women’s that the best way to live life is by doing our best to be good to others.
The sixth lesson I learned was to help others through good works. Jesus Christ’s whole life was devoted to selfless service. We had a lot of service projects over the six years that I was in young women’s; we caroled to the elderly, delivered treats to families in need, distributed food to the homeless at a soup kitchen, gathered and sorted canned food on multiple occasions, held a few carnivals for the Christmas Box Children, and didn’t even scratch the surface on all the service that Jesus Christ did. Young women’s taught me how important it is to follow Christ’s example. Little acts of service go a long way, and as you donate your time to serving those around you, you’ll become more like Him.
The seventh lesson I learned was to have integrity. From a good teacher of mine, I learned the difference between honesty and integrity: “Honesty is saying what you’ll do; integrity is doing what you say.” Integrity in the dictionary is defined as ‘the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or standards.’ By trying my best to be honest, I’ve not only become a better person, I’ve gained the trust of friends and family.
The final lesson was to become virtuous. When you are patient, pure, and virtuous, you invite the spirit into your life. Virtue permits us to appreciate and understand the value of the lives that we can create, and it also helps us to prepare ourselves to be worthy to take the sacrament and enter the temple. Through virtue, I have learned how important it is to be sealed to my future family in the temple.
The young women values have and will help me to improve myself, and I am so grateful for the opportunities that the program has given me. My leaders were incredible, and I can’t thank them enough for helping me gain a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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