What I Learned (Not Reported) at Education Week

Guess what?

I'm officially a reporter for The Universe!

(That's BYU's Campus Newspaper, in case you didn't know).

Most of you know that I'm a Communications Major (Journalism Emphasis) at school. Part of the major is this super difficult (supposedly, I'm taking it in the fall) class called Comms 321: News Reporting. In that class you write articles for the paper. All of the members of the class got an email inviting us to get a head start on our inch count by reporting on Education Week. I decided this sounded like a splendid idea and signed up.

Let me tell you, nine articles in four days is no easy feat. Well, maybe it is for more experienced reporters but I felt busy all the time.

For those of you who don't know what education week is, it's pretty much you go to a bunch of classes on various topics ranging from the life of Jesus to how to plant a garden box. 

The hardest part of reporting? Trying to write the articles for the public instead of writing the articles as "This is what I, Lindsey Williams, took out of the class." I knew that some of the stories I heard were just too sacred to put into a paper and some of the feelings I had were not anything the speaker said but rather what I had learned personally.

So, for you lucky boys and girls, this is what I learned (not reported) at Education Week:

•  I'm a terrible communicator. Funny that a communications major is saying this, right? In the class we talked about bad communication isn't just saying things you don't mean because of you're emotions. This is a list of the characteristics of bad communication from The Feeling Good Handbook by David B. Burns. I realized that I'm guilty of a lot of these!

 

• One class I went to talked about worshiping Christ. In the class, the teacher (Bro. Millet), mentioned that one way we worship is to acknowledge God's greatness and His majesty and confess our total dependence on him. Bro. Millet pointed out, "God does not need the acknowledgement, we do." He talked about how when we focus have that gratitude we will be happier. "There is something spiritually therapeutic about acknowledging the hand of God."
• "Happiness is the fulfillment of expectations." -Michael Allred
• Never shrug off a scripture saying that you've already heard it before. There is always something new to learn.
• Don't be afraid to admit you have a weakness; everyone has weaknesses.
• You're not humble if...
• You are not ready to hear difficult answers
• You are not accepting criticism
• "If you have not received an answer to your prayers in the last three days you must change the way you pray. If you have not received an answer by reading the scriptures in the past week you need to change your scripture study."- Merrilee A. Boyack
• Go to the scriptures before Google.
• Stop dwelling on the past. Christ is always in front of us. If we keep looking behind us we cannot come unto him. "If we face the S[o]n, the shadows fall behind us." -Helen Keller
• “When a man wages war against his weakness, this is the most holy war he can ever enter, and the joy of accomplishment is the most exquisite.” -Marion G. Romney

Two of the classes I went to were my absolute favorites so they get a special pull-out section. The first one was by Sherrie Mills Johnson about avoiding unnecessary pain in our lives.

She talked about how there were only four types of necessary pain in our lives:

1. Necessary pain is encountered as we travel the path of righteousness.
2. Adversity that occurs because of the natural telestial world (i.e. a jammed finger).
3. When other people misuse their agency (i.e. a drunk driver).
4. Repentance.

And then she talked about types of unnecessary pain:

1. Sin
2. Fighting against the truth or verity of a telestial world - She talked about how everyone at some point will be stuck in a traffic jam. But does complaining about the traffic jam ever change it? No.
3. Trying to avoid the necessary pain of life - Using an analogy of a toddler learning how to walk (a painful process indeed), she posed the question of if we all had to wait until we were eight years old to learn how to walk how many people would choose to just stay crawling in order to avoid the pain?
4. Denying Jesus Christ- she talked about four ways we deny Jesus Christ that we may not realize:
1. When we feel the need to do it all by ourselves - Christ commanded us to take his yoke upon us. He never said to go plow the field by ourselves.
2. Feeling like we can never be forgiven - Christ has promised to heal us of every sin. Feeling like we can't be forgiven is calling Christ a liar.
3. Comparing ourselves to other people - When we are not content with our own lives in comparison with others it is a way of saying, "Christ did not know what was best for me."
4. Thinking that we can never be good enough - "You won’t ever be good enough…But Jesus Christ died to be good enough for us. He is the good.”

After looking at these lists, I realized that a lot of the pain in my life is pain I cause on my own. I think the one I have the biggest problem with is fighting against the truth. But I'm going to work on it!

The other class I went to was by Brian G. Andre... It was absolutely my favorite class (I went to it twice even). But, there is no way I will be able to put into words everything I learned in the class. It was hard enough to write my article (it's called Healing Power, the link is below). I would encourage you to check out this website though. This is the organization Andre works for that helps out the leprosy colonies in India.  

Rising Star Outreach

What a wonderful week I had. :)

(Oh, and if you're interested, here are the links to my articles. For some reason I can only find six online).

• Worshipping Christ
• Self-Mastery
• Healing Power
• Christ's Miracles
• Ministering Angels Today
• Fortifying Relationships