Recommitting to Come Follow Me: Find Your Big Picture

It happens to all of us.  That mid-year drag when the goals we were so set to accomplish in the beginning of the year start to slip by the wayside.  And it especially happens when summer hits and life gets busy. You start to lose sight of your big picture.  I don't know about you, but it seems to me like fall is a time I tend to start looking to recommit to things I've let slip.

So...what is Your Big Picture?

Before you can know if you've lost sight of Your Big Picture, it's important to know what Your Big Picture looks like. I'm guessing that, if you're like me, in the beginning when Come Follow Me was announced, you had an idea in your head about what that was going to look like for you as an individual and any plans you were making for your family. It might have been a loose plan, and maybe as time went on, the plan got a little more refined.

Your Big Picture is so much more than just your actual scripture study, too.  It also involves all the ways you plan to implement the things you learn and work to "Come Follow [the Savior]."

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Look Back on Your Goals

For me, I had three specific, measurable goals:

1. Break up my Come Follow Me lessons so that I was doing specific program related studying every day of the week.
2. Devote my Sunday mornings before going to church to reviewing the last week's lesson, preparing for the upcoming week's lesson, and any other gospel related activity that prepared me to go to church and partake of the sacrament.
3. Attend the temple twice a month.

While I wouldn't say that I've lost sight of this Big Picture as a whole, my road has developed a few pot holes and diversions for sure.

This is a great time to get out your journal and do some writing.  

What were your goals when you started?  Write them down, even if you've written them down before.  Then honestly assess where you are in relation to them now.

Do your goals need to change?

Maybe your goals were great when you started but your circumstances have changed.  Plus the very act of participating in the Come Follow Me program has taught you a lot, so you probably have new ideas about what direction you'd like to go.

Related Post:  Why You NEED to Participate in a General Conference Challenge

Related Post: Helping Kids Learn the Come Follow Me Lessons

Define Your Big Picture

If you were to describe EXACTLY what your living the gospel looks like if you do it PERFECTLY, what would that look like?  We all know none of us are going to do it perfectly, so it's important to know that before you begin. However, you need to have the big picture defined or you can't tell how close you are.

Everyone's Big Picture is Unique!

Go back to your journal and write about what living the gospel looks like in your life if you were doing it PERFECTLY.  Be specific and think about every area of your life! And I've talked about something super important before in my post Come Follow Me 5 Ideas to Get You Started, and that's the idea that this is not just a program for your family--it is a program for you as an individual.

As you define your Big Picture, be sure to talk about yourself as an individual, not just the you that is a mother, grandmother, wife, neighbor, and friend.  You have to have your own life jacket on before you're prepared to help others, so don't leave this part out!

Change Your Goals, if Necessary

Once you've got your big picture defined, it's time to revisit the goals you had before.  Do they fall in line with what you just defined?  How are you doing with them? Do you see a need to change any of them?

It's possible you might need to abandon a goal you previously set because it isn't really setting you on a path towards your big picture, and that's okay.  It isn't failure, it's just shifting focus to something more important, that's all.

Related Post: 12 Tips to Get the Most From Your Scripture Study

Recommit to Finishing the Year Strong

I mentioned earlier in this post that I love fall because it feels like another new start to me.  When my kids were young and going back to school at this time of year, I always took some time to refocus myself on what I wanted to accomplish.  It seemed like a good time to do it because we're knocking on the door of the holiday season.

Now is a great time to take a look at where you've been, where you are now, and where you'd like to go!

And on another note...

This Week's Lesson Helps

This week's lesson "The Power of God Unto Salvation" feels deep to me, so part of my re-commitment this week is that I am going to really spend some time studying every single day, and I'm probably going to find myself reading some of the scriptures over again.  I also feel like the talks that go with this week's lesson are especially important because there is so much to understand, and who better to explain it than the living prophets?

Here are some great resources to go with this week's lesson:

Definitely my favorite thing to go with this lesson is this video called "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. If you've never seen this talk before, it's a must!  Brad Wilcox explains grace better than anyone I've ever heard, and I love his example of the piano lessons. Even if you've seen it before, it's worth seeing again.

If you're looking for a cute coloring page for young children, you can find one here called A New Path.

This video called "A Newness of Life" by David Bednar would also be a great resource for family or individual study. I love adding videos to my study for variety, and it's also nice to listen while I'm doing other things.

"What Does it Mean to Repent?" is another good video that goes with this lesson.  It's a pretty popular video, so you may have seen it before, but it's always worth another look.