Spritually Filled

This past weekend was just what I needed. The youth of my church had a youth conference this past weekend, "What Are You Broadcasting?" was the theme of the weekend. It was all about what things you are putting out to the world. Are looking for things that are lovely, of good report, or virtuous or praiseworthy? Are you being honest, true chaste, benevolent, virtuous and doing good to those around you? So basically, you are being an example, a light on a hill, to the world around you? The best part of the weekend was being able to listen to Sis Cook, First Counselor of the YW General Presidency, speak. She was fabulous! I was able to hear her speak three times. I would like to share some of the things that I think are most important for the youth today.

- Challenge our youth today. Give them an assignment and let them do it, don't do it for them.
- Have the youth plan and teach so they feel they have some ownership.
- Look at yourself and others as God sees you, not as the world sees you
- Live with virtue
- Serve the world around you
- Serve the Lord
- Serve your family
- One righteous young man/young woman can change the world
- We must teach the doctrines and principles of the church and gospel plainly and bluntly
- Young Women teach the Young Men benevolence
- Young Men teach the Young Women the Keys of the Priesthood

That's only a little bit of the three "trainings" I was able to sit in on. The best thing, I think, that I heard was to challenge our youth. We are so in the habit of not challenging our youth and allowing them to either accomplish the task of fail miserably. We are so afraid to let our kids fail (just look at the school systems and you will completely understand) and learn and grow from their failure. We are to the point that we don't want to challenge our youth so they can accomplish everything they want to. When they do struggle, we take over and don't allow them to struggle, problem solve and figure it all out. We want to take away the hardness of the task so we don't have to see them hurt and struggle. Yes, it hurts to see our youth struggle, but nothing done the easy way is ever truly worth it. We all have struggles and fights but it is how we handle those trials that make us who we are and allow us to grow and learn. If someone is always picking us up when we are down and they do not allow us to fight our way back, we have learned only one thing, that we don't have to fight, someone will always get us out of whatever the problem is and we don't have to do anything. Allow the challenges to come and allow yourself to get back on track. I am not saying we don't help and support them, just don't outright rescue them. Two cents done, now on to the rest of the weekend that I was able to participate in.

Friday I was able to be a COPES facilitator. I went through COPES facilitator training when I was in college and have been doing it with my job for quite some time now. I was so excited for this opportunity, but the guy I was partnered with must have felt I didn't know what I was doing because he took over everything. I had told him I have done facilitation for this age group of kids and that I do it on a regular basis at work and he would not let me get much in edge wise. I had to fight my to say anything. He was stuck on a script that he was given when the kids were learning something not on the script. I was trying to let them continue with the path they were on, but he would always go back to the script. That's okay, the kids learned at least a little something from it. Every group was different with different dynamics and they had to work together for a common goal. Some groups were tougher than others, but the last group of the day was my absolute favorite. They were so engaged in the activity and the discussion that I didn't want them to leave. They thought of things that I never thought about and discussed things that to a normal person would be way above their heads, but they grasped the point. They understood and it was fun to see the light bulb go off in their heads. That is why I love working with the youth. It's those light bulb moments. It was a spiritually fulfilling couple of days and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to be a part of it. It totally filled my spiritual tank which was, honestly, a little low. We have a great group of teenagers in the world today, we just have to teach and challenge them to get them on the right track. They will do wonders if we just believe and have faith in them.