To Be a Leader

Leadership with a small “L”

President and Sister Clark gave a wonderful commencement speech back in 2007 titled, “Leadership with a Small ‘L’.” In this speech, they talked about letting our life become a living model of what we want our children to be. In other words, we are to lead by example. Another point made by Elder Clark is to lead with a vision. This means that we must have an end goal in sight. What is our purpose as we live life? Where do we want to end up, and what kind of family do we wish to have? It’s important to set goals as we go throughout life. Those goals will help us achieve our greatest dreams.

A Disciple Preparation Center (DPC)

In Elder David A. Bednar's 2004 Devotional address, he spoke of the similarities of Missionary Training Centers to Brigham Young University-Idaho. At this great university, we have the opportunity to be trained in the gospel and in temporal ways. This training will take us to far places in life, but in order to be receptive of this training, we as students must be living worthy of this blessing. Thus, we must learn to be a disciple, be prepared, and learn in a higher way at both the Temple – even the House of God – as well as at school.

Sheep, Shepherds, and Sheepherders

This talk by Elder Moss is all about leadership, and the qualities that we should strive to gain as leaders in our families, in school, in our professional careers, on teams, and in church. The quote that I love most from this talk states, “The sheepherder who fails to feed is a leader who fails to lead, and neither is of any benefit to sheep or people.” This stuck out to me because I realized that without a shepherd, sheep wouldn’t eat. They depend on their leader to either lead them out to the pasture, or bring food to them directly. As leaders in various settings, we will be expected to “feed our sheep.” This means that we must take responsibility to do that which our herd needs. We will have to forget ourselves, and go to work serving others.

Jesus: The Perfect Leader

The Savior loves each of us completely – despite who we are or what we have done.  Because of His love for us, He is able to be the perfect leader. One who is willing to give reproof, one who can condemn the sin without condemning the individual. The Savior is selfless. He puts others needs above His own, and by doing so, He is able to see the needs of everyone as a whole. In President Spencer W. Kimball’s address, he says, “In loving others, we can help them to grow by making reasonable but real demands of them.” The Savior had asked a few things of His disciples, but because He knew them perfectly – He never asked them to do anything that was more than they could handle. “Jesus was concerned with basics in human nature and in bringing about lasting changes, not simply cosmetic changes.”

$100 Challenge Update

I have started babysitting, and am currently working toward the goal of making $100 of profit.