Inspirational Quotes Book Assignment

Last Fall I did something very exciting. I became a student at BYU-Idaho, via the Pathway Program! I have always wanted to attend a BYU school and was sure that because of my address, this would be a physical impossibility. I should have known better. As with all righteous desires, the Lord always has a plan and a way of making them come to pass in His own time.

I have really enjoyed my time as a Pathway student these past two semesters. This will be my last semester before I get to officially "matriculate" into an online degree program. As part of the program, we take a religion course each semester and this one is no different. This time it is the "Teachings of the Prophets" course, studying our living prophets and gaining deeper understanding of their roles in leading the Lord's church in modern days. I am really quite excited for this course. I can really see good Family Home Evening lessons coming from this manual too!

One of the interesting assignments we have to complete is an Inspirational Quotes Book. We are to compile groups of passages for 10 Gospel-oriented topics (4 of which are assigned by the instructor, the other 6 we choose personally), along with references and insights. One of the suggested methods for this compilation was a blog. I immediately thought about this one and knew it would be a perfect way to put my quotes somewhere "permanent". It's also a great way for me to get back to blogging again - BONUS!

I don't know which topics I am going to settle on for this assignment, but I am really looking forward to all of the things I will learn from it. I think it will be a great thing for me and my family to focus on for these next few months!

Here are some of the topics I am leaning towards:

Mental Health
Virtue
Young Women
Raising Priesthood-holders
Priorities and Responsibilities
Overcoming Worldliness
Single Parenting in the Gospel
Divorce and Eternal Perspective
Dating as a Single Parent
Member Missionaries
Overcoming Pride
Health, Dieting, and the Word of Wisdom
Living Christ
Home Preparation/Food Storage
Church History
Patriotism
Addiction
Building Family Relationships

As you can see, the list of what I need to learn is extensive. I am going to tag each post with IQB-(topic) so that they will all stay together on my Topics list. I don't know if I will find pictures or get creative with each post, but if I like this project at the end, I might decide to have the posts published into an actual book for safe keeping.

 This is my first quote, from Sister Elaine S. Dalton, (former General President of the Young Women) given in the March 30, 2013 General Young Women's broadcast. Sister Dalton's loving determination to restore virtue to our society and to give our daughters strong and stalwart examples of chastity is an inspiration to me for many reasons. First, I am a mom of a Young Woman. She is impressionable and lovely, she is growing and maturing faster than I ever thought possible, I am grateful that I can share insights with her from a woman whom she has come to love and respect, and know that I will not have to be concerned with content or principles in other areas of that woman's life. Secondly, I am also a SINGLE MOM.... and let me tell you, just because you are old enough to already have children does not mean being virtuous is any less important when it comes to dating! I am so very grateful for women who give me reminders of who I want to be and how I want my daughters to be able to see me. I want my daughters to see me as an example of virtue, my son to see me as the kind of woman he would want his future wife to become. This quote is a huge reminder of the divine importance of virtue, whether you are young and just beginning to learn about relationships, or you are old like me with a brood of babies pulling at your shirt-tails.It is a reminder that virtue is not just some old-fashioned ideal... it is real! It is tangible. It is POWERFUL!

"Be not moved in your desire and commitment to remain virtuous and sexually pure. Cherish virtue. Your personal purity is one of your greatest sources of power." - Elaine S. Dalton, President, LDS General Young Women organization.