Week 12

A lot of the terms in this article was a little difficult to understand for me, but I did my best. I think that virtue and integrity are extremely vital to an economy. If no one was trustworthy in their business affairs their businesses wouldn’t be able to continue anymore. Charles Handy says, “So we will be left to rely increasingly on governments for the creation of our wealth, something that they have always been conspicuously bad at doing.” Basically, saying that if there are no businesses out there, we would have to heavily on the government, and that’s something we don’t want to happen as they have always done such a bad job doing it. When people and businesses have the virtue and integrity everything is trusted, people trust them that they’ll do a great job, and there are no worries wondering if the business is accountable or credible. Also, when you do have that virtue and integrity, you stick out like a sore thumb, and people and businesses will want to work with you and want you on their team because you are trustworthy. If you didn’t have integrity and virtue no one would want, you on their team either. According to Charles Handy the real justification for the existence of businesses is to get wealthy from what I understood, is through stock market capitalism. Charles Handy talks of stock market capitalism, and the criterion of success is the shareholder value, as expressed by a company’s share price. He talks of ways to influence share price which are proposed solutions such as 1) buying and selling businesses and 2) cutting or postponing expenditures that are geared to the future will increase profits immediately. I agree with Charles Handy because these two ways can influence the share price which is what someone wants in order to make money according to the article.

Week 11

I don’t really have an attitude towards money other than I know that money is able to help us get ahead in certain aspects. It helps us to live in a way that can help ourselves and our families to be able to do the Lord’s will and what He wants us to do. Money can’t buy us happiness or fix our health or bring someone back from the dead. \We can use money to help us with our health such as using money to buy a gym membership or personal trainer. Money can help us get ahead and can affect the way we live. Having a healthy attitude with money can help us to have financial security, and not to have to worry about our needs. The way that we view money can also affect the way we live such as using money not within our means. The Lord does want us to be self-reliant, and so he expects us to work hard for the things that we need. Brother Gibson shares the scripture Mosiah 1:7 and lists 6 rules from this scripture if we want to prosper. They are: Rule 1. Seek the Lords and have hope in Him. Rule 2. Keep the commandments, that includes the temporal ones, tithing and fast offerings. Rule 3. Think about money and plan how you can become self-reliant Rule 4. Take advantage of chances for learning so you will not be ignorant of these matters (being educated) Rule 5. Learn the laws upon which the blessings of wealth are predicated. Rule 6. Do not send away the naked, the hungry, the thirsty or the sick or those who are held captive. I did like these rules that Brother Gibson specifically lists because it’s what we should do and what the Lord wants us to do as well.

Week 10

One thing that stuck out to me in our readings and videos was the article by Elder Dallin H. Oaks on “The Challenge to Become.” He says that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the plan by which we can become what children of God are supposed to be come. He continues to say that we have to continually be steady in our keeping our covenants, ordinances, actions, making right choices, and continuing repentance to have a spotless and perfected state. I like the scripture he shares along with this in Alma 34:32 where it says, “This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God.” This whole phrase of him talking about what we are to become is all through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is the challenge is whether we are going to continue in keeping our covenants with God. I also liked how he says how we should all be working toward our own personal conversion and how important that is. Elder Oaks talks about the process of conversion and how the gospel challenges us to be converted to testify the to the truthfulness of the gospel. A lot of good principles in this article that stuck out to me. One other video that stuck out to me was the video of Kathy Huber. She was one of the first women who graduated from MIT in the 1960s and how she had to keep going and not let anyone tell her that she can’t graduate or be going to school there. She talked about the type of tenacity and perseverance she had to have to continue her degree. I am looking forward to learning and experiencing more about being able to dream and thinking big. Whatever it is that we think is what we are and what we can become.

Week 9

There was a lot of good videos and articles for week 9, and I loved them all. Within all the videos and articles, they talked about different topics such as: trustworthiness, hiring honest and ethical people, and what a leader is to name a few. There was a couple of things that stuck out to me and that was Elder Bednar’s talk on BYU-Idaho being a disciple preparation center and Jim Ritchie’s video on achieving higher ground. With Elder Bednar’s talk I loved his whole talk, but I would say I really liked the way he talked of BYU-Idaho and the rest of the church schools being similar to the 17 Missionary Training Center’s across the world. They were mostly isolated geographically, most were located near a temple etc. Elder Bednar quotes, “…We are blessed to be in a special place – a Disciple Preparation Center – and to be engaged at a pivotal time in an essential work. As disciples we have important lessons to learn; we have an eternally important work to do.” After reading this it made me think about my time at BYU-Idaho and why I am there and what I will be doing after graduating, and what a blessing that I am able to prepare myself while taking classes to be a better prepared disciple of Christ. The whole BYU-Pathway program through BYU-Idaho was inspired of God and we are able to finish our degrees while at the same time preparing ourselves for discipleship at an affordable price! What a blessing that is for all of us! In Jim Ritchie’s video on achieving higher ground, I really liked how he talked about Captain Moroni and Abinadi from the Book of Mormon, and how they were true leaders who took others to higher ground. They were obedient, they worked hard, they sacrificed, they were prepared in all things as leaders. We can look to them as examples as to how we should be conducting ourselves with ourselves.