Disciple Leadership

I loved reading Elder David A. Bednar’s BYU-Idaho’s devotional talk from August 2004 about BYU-Idaho being a Disciple Preparation Center (DPC). He talks about a special spirit and learning that is at this school, and I can testify that it is true as I have felt it with my daughters who have attended as well as with myself as a BYU-Idaho student. One DPC lesson he taught that made a significant impact on me this week is that “A disciple’s faith in the Savior and spiritual preparation dispel fear.” The scriptures teach us in D&C 45:32 that “my disciples shall stand in holy places and shall be not moved.”There is a lot of fear in finding your passion, developing your talents and starting and running a business. I love this reminder that as I spiritually prepare, and follow the Spirit with my passions and talents, then I will be blessed and led to do great things that serves and helps others. I know that I have an important work to do and that I am in the best disciple preparation school that there is.

I also learned this week from Jim Ritchie about what being a Level 5 Leader means and how important it is in making your mark upon the world. It means being a self-effacing, humble, but passionately driven person. He shared that “Good is the enemy to Great.” I’ve never thought of this but after pondering on this I can see how getting comfortable being good and doing just good things can hinder our growth to becoming great. It is experiencing the hard things and the growth that pushes us to be great and do great things. I can look back in my own life so far and see where this has happened in my own life. Often times we get in our own way with self-doubt or lack of motivation and that hinders that growth from good to great. I am grateful to learn this so that moving forward I can recognize this in my future endeavors.