Week 12

 

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.”  They are indeed, disadvantaged and underserved.  And though I believe that the changing of mind-sets can make a huge difference, it still can be hard for those labeled.  Something as simple as an opportunity to be believed in and maybe a little financial credit could literally change whether or not we saw poverty again.

Weekly prompt:  Reflect on your own personal development in regard to self-reliance.

I have taken the Church’s Personal Finances class twice.  Each time I learned something new, going into it thinking that self-reliance was just providing for yourself and your family.  The first time I went through the class a big take away I got out of it was a different meaning to a scripture for me that I have tried to remember.  “For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God…”  I always looked at Alma 34:32 as a scripture telling me that I only had a certain amount of time to learn all that I needed to know and prove myself before I return home to my Father.  And while I believe this previous thinking helped me to do certain things in my life for the better, I do not think that is what the Lord wants me to get out of that scripture.  I believe that scripture is teaching me to use this time here on Earth in actual preparation.  Meaning, something as simple as learning time management will be useful to me in Heaven.  Who would have thought?!  The same things I am doing here on Earth like cleaning and taking care of a household will actually be useful after I die! That scripture means to me what Dieter F Uchtdorf said, “Dear brothers and sisters, living the gospel faithfully is not a burden.  It is a joyful rehearsal – a preparation for inheriting the grand glory of the eternities.” 

 

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