W02 Assignment_ Journal 9.20.23

Week 02 Notes:  Israel is God’s covenant people  Hebraic meanings of the word Israel: let God prevail  Family is central to God’s plan and it’s our duty to protect the children  Character is who we are at our core as individuals, whereas Personality can be altered more frequently by outside factors  Christ doesn’t want us to have His personality, He wants us to develop His character  Having different personalities is not a bad thing, as it can give us unique views and allow us to advocate for people of all walks of life  Strengths and weaknesses come from all personality traits, but having Christlike character can amplify our strengths and develop our weaknesses for the better  As advocates we are asked to judge ideas and messages, not people  To be effective followers of Christ we have to have a clear understanding of right and wrong  Doing good things is about more than just “going through the motions”  It is a natural desire to strive to be more than we are, however, we have to keep that desire in check, so it’s not corrupted by comparisons to others  Worth and usefulness are different  “Never check your religion at the door” – Elder Holland  We must deepen our understanding in the differences between God’s Love and God’s Laws  “Our compassion and our love—fundamental characteristics and requirements of our Christianity—must never be interpreted as compromising the commandments.” – Elder Holland  Following God’s Laws are easy when everyone around us is doing so too, but when we feel pulled in different directions by friends or loved ones, it gets more difficult to follow  Some people fear that loving others who sin means condoning the sin, but Christ didn’t believe so  "One of the greatest indicators of righteous character is the capacity to recognize and appropriately respond to other people who are experiencing the very challenge or adversity that is most immediately and forcefully pressing upon us.” – Mosiah 3:19  Loving those around us unconditionally does not mean we are ignoring God’s Laws  One of the best ways that Christ was able to be a balanced advocate was by always seeking to please Heavenly Father  If we don’t put God first in all things, then our understanding and application of love can become distorted.  We have to be mindful of our reactions to things we may disagree with, as to not let pride or our own insecurities take over  We must continue to challenge ourselves to learn to love the way God loves, while also trusting His laws for us  Only Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ can love unconditionally – worldly love always has some level of condition attached to it  Remember the story of the woman taken in adultery – “let those without sin, cast the first stone” Week 02 Reflection:

What personal impressions did you have as you reviewed the material? I felt that the discussion topics this week are incredibly difficult, but important to talk about. Personally, I’m an advocate for sex education and plan on making this a part of my career path in the future. In a perfect world, abortion would never be necessary, however, the influences Satan has on the Earth leads to situations where that tough decision is made. With proper sex education and resources available to all, majority of the abortions could be prevented. I don’t believe Heavenly Father would’ve given us the gift of agency if He wanted us to force others to do or believe what we tell them too. We all have a choice, regardless of if that choice is what everyone would do. What did you learn from your peers this week? (PLEASE NOTE: If you are unable to attend your zoom meeting in any given week, you can still receive points for answering this question by discussing the week's topics with a family member and friend and then giving a brief summary of your discussion and what you learned from the person you shared with.) I really liked something Tihane said about character. That it is, “who we are when no one is looking.” We also all had really good discussion around sin and how it can be viewed as different levels of sin, when really no one is perfect and we shouldn’t be letting our own perceptions or biases influence judgement towards others. How is this lesson helpful to you as a family advocate? This lesson was great in helping me realize that certain topics I’m passionate about and would like to advocate for in the future, still have a lot of unknown information to me. I think in order to properly advocate, you must be knowledgeable about all aspects of a topic and be willing to learn more each day. I need to learn to be prepared for whatever questions and comments may be asked and be willing to listen to other’s perspectives. It also gave me an opportunity to think about what topics are the most important to me and what I’d like to pursue further. Week 01 Notes:  With the gift of agency, we are given the choice to follow or not to follow the voice of the Holy Ghost  The Holy Ghost helps us become “learners who act on faith”  When we have the knowledge to seek answers by faith, then we will be guided, strengthened, and protected to act and ultimately do what is right  Having agency as a learner gives us the great responsibility to monitor what we will learn and how well we will learn  We can all end up creating limitations on ourselves  Agency allows us to be independent of the choices and actions we take and not just adjust as things are thrown our way without a choice in the matter

2. What did you learn from your peers this week? (If you were unable to attend your zoom meeting you can still respond to this question by discussing what you learned with a family member or friend and writing a paragraph summary of what you learned during that discussion.) There wasn’t a zoom meeting this week, however, I was able to share some of the lessons with family and friends. In the past when I’ve shared lessons from classes, I’ve needed to do most of the talking to keep the discussion flowing. This topic, however, was relatable enough for everyone that they felt more comfortable chatting. We all have individual agency and even if someone’s beliefs are different, we can still love them. When we’re more open with each other, and start these conversations with friends and family, it can lead them to ask more questions in the future as well. As I have these conversations, I realize that sometimes it’s not just about the “what” we are teaching, but the “when” we are teaching them and the mindset they have at the time. This can be a huge factor in how well the conversations influence them. 3. How is this lesson helpful to you as a family advocate? I pondered why I chose to pursue this career field initially, since it will be a mental challenge for me in many ways. One of the biggest factors for me is being a part of helping children have a better future. Since I have personally experienced many traumas as a young child and into my adulthood, I feel as though I can connect to those children uniquely. Through many years of therapy, support, and self-reflection, I’ve been lucky enough to overcome many of the effects those experiences had on me, however not everyone who experiences these kinds of trauma is able to recover from it. The first step in my opinion is attacking it at the source. If we provide more education and resources to the parents, then they can more directly influence the children in their homes. And even just small changes in the daily patterns of parenting can have significant long-term effects on these trauma responses.