May 15, 2010 -- IT'S NOT ABOUT ME!

Yesterday I was watching the Womanhood Conference talks and one was Elder Oaks. The main theme was "It Is Not About Me!" For the last 2 days I have pondered that talk. So many times we are worried about--what we say, how we look, whether it will be fun.... what is in it for me attitude. I thought that I was doing pretty good until a couple hundred flashbacks of instances past appeared to me. Hmmm! Interesting! He even said when we are assigned a talk, often we tell all about how it affected us to be asked or joke about it. According to Elder Oaks we should just start our talk. Never thought about that one.... Last night I didn't want to go to the singles dance because I felt too fat. -- All About Me! I realized by going, perhaps I could cheer someone or make someone elses night fun and not worry about my appearance. Actually I got more compliments on how I look so slim and how nice I looked. My purpose in going had changed to looking outward, but the rewards were inward. I got every gentleman except one out on the floor dancing and they kept dancing with others. Sometimes it is hard to just make that step up to ask someone.
Asking what are my motives in doing things has been a common question I ask myself. Also I pray that I will do things for the right reasons. For the next full week I am going to try to live each day as "IT IS NOT ABOUT ME'! It will be interesting to test my motives and change my thought patterns. Last night was a really fun experience because I chose to have fun, not worry about myself, and make it a good night for everyone else. Hmm! Just thought, "what if the whole world lived that principle!" Sounds like that would be a conflicting issue because everyone would be frustrated with trying to not be about me when everyone else would be trying to make it about you. I always remember, however, that we are responsible for what we do say and be, not how the other person tries to make us feel or be. Therefore we can be the best WE can be at "making it not about me!" We can be happy and have fun because life is not about me!!