Personal Progress



      A couple of months ago I discovered the Personal Progress program. This is a program developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for young women ages 12 to 18. The purposes of this program as far as I can tell(someone better acquainted with this can correct me) is to teach young women core values which will help them in all areas of their lives as they get older and to increase faith in Jesus Christ. The values addressed in the program are faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity and virtue.
   While this program was developed with the needs of young women in mind older women may also complete it. I know one woman about my age who has completed it and another who has started it but has yet to finish it.
   For each of the values, there are three required experiences and three elective. The only exception is the value of virtue which has four required experiences. Each value has a project that must be completed. This project must take a minimum of 10 hours to complete. The project for the value of virtue is to read the entire Book of Mormon. While reading it is suggested to record any thoughts or insights in a personal journal and to look for examples of virtue by the Saviour and His followers.
   I looked at some of the experiences and projects and was intrigued. This looked interesting. Many of the experiences require reading and learning about the value in the scriptures or other documents and then either doing something that pertains to the readings or discussing with someone what has been learned.
   After looking at the program I thought that I would like to complete it. It looked like it would be helpful, but also rather challenging. The challenging part had me a little intimidated. (At this time I didn't know any older women working on this program.) I reached out to my friend, Susan, for more information. Since she has daughters who completed the program and had very likely completed it herself, she would be a good resource for me.
   It was a good decision. She not only had the information I wanted, she encouraged me to complete it and generously offered to mentor me. I was so grateful. She is a busy woman. I am touched that she would make time to help me.
  The values can be worked on in any order. I chose to start with the first one in the book which is faith. I read the Scriptures and other things that came with each experience. I feel good about what I'm learning and also very enthusiastic about the program in general. In fact, C is probably getting tired of hearing about it so much. I'm trying to contain my enthusiasm, but it's a little difficult.
   I believe that this program could help other people not just women and young women. I think that this program could be useful to anyone interested in developing these values. Even those who do not subscribe to any religion could use this program as a blueprint for developing needed or wanted traits or skills. Instead of using religious scriptures find information on the trait or skill you want to acquire, then develop ways to put into practice what you have read.
   When a young woman completes the program, she is interviewed by the bishop and if all is in order receives public recognition and a medallion to wear. I'm not sure how it works when an older woman works on it alone. The satisfaction of finishing it, even if no one but C and my close friends know will be just fine with me.

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