BUS 274 Reflection Journal

  Reflection: This week I learned the importance of being physically and spiritually self-reliant.   When I am self-reliant I am better able to serve others around me.   Response to a reading: There was a certain part in Elder Joseph B Wirthlin’s talk that helped me build upon a testimony that was gained last week for me.   He said, “Do you love the Lord?   Spend time with Him.   Meditate on His words.   Take His yoke upon you.   Seek to understand and obey…When we love the Lord, obedience ceases to be a burden.   Obedience become a delight.   When we love the Lord, we seek less for things that benefit us and turn our hearts toward things that will bless and uplift others.”   He spoke of things that will lead to blessing others:   loving the Lord and obeying.   These are principles of self-reliance and last week I was able to use them to understand that perfecting those skills here on Earth will be of most benefit when I leave here and live with Father in Heaven once again.   And

  Summary: This week I learned how self-reliance and microcredit can come together in a possible way to end poverty.   Add a change in mind-set of humans and we could create a different kind of world for those once in poverty.   Lastly, I was reminded that we live in a unique day and age where there is a real capacity to make social changes, in things like poverty and meeting the basic health needs of all the world’s children, and it be sustainable.   Response to a video: Watching the video “Bonsai Trees” of Muhammad Yunus likening a small Bonsai tree to those living in poverty (having a stunted growth because of the small flowerpot it was planted in) validated my feelings in past lessons learned about disadvantaged people.   Whether it be the color of someone’s skin, disabilities, or sexual orientation, certain people have and are discriminated against.   Yunus put it perfectly when he said, “ Simply society never gave them the space and never gave them the base on which to grow