Servant leadership

So I missed a blog a few weeks ago about Servant Leadership. The speaker emphasized the importance of doing things not for yourself serving others to be a good servant leader. Leadership shouldn't just be about making yourself look good or acquiring more skills and experience to put on a resume, but actually learning to love those you are leading.

I have a scriptural application that's kind of different for this. It made me think of in Matthew 6:16-18 when Jesus is teaching the Sermon on the Mount and says not to be like the hypocritices who "disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast... they have their reward." He said that we should fast secretly to our Father in Heaven. I thought this was like servant leadership because if we just do things to appear as a great leader or for our own benefit, we may as well not be doing them. But if we actually serve those around us and do them because we love them, than we can make a big difference in other peoples' lives, and that's really what matters.

Thanks for everything this semester, Tommy. The class was wonderful and I really did learn a lot about becoming a better leader and person. You were a fantastic TA :)

Last week!

Elise May was our speaker last week and a couple of her more simple points really stood out to me. The first thing she did was have us introduce ourselves and talk to the people around us, which at first I thought was a little cliche because we had been in the same class the whole semester, but then I realized I really didn't know most of the people the class. Though I've been trying since coming to college to be outgoing and talk to those I don't know, It hit me that I need to work harder to remember people's names and get to know those around me even if they're acquaintances.

The next thing Elise May did was have us write the different things we learned about leadership on the board. It kind of overwhelmed me to see how many aspects of being a good leader and person we should work on. It's relatively easy to take a week at a time and learn about and implement an aspect of leadership, but then when the next week comes, it's hard to keep building upon those skills instead of just moving on. I guess I'm just saying that you can work on leadership skills your whole life and never be the perfect leader, and there's always something you can improve. But that's good, because we become better people and better leaders.

Something fun

For my something fun this week I went to a songwriting showcase on Wednesday. I was in a songwriting class last semester and got in the showcase and it was so fun to perform and hear everybody else's amazing talent. I wanted to see the talent this semester and the different ways people create songs and perform so I decided to go. It was amazing! My favorite performer was this girl with the most unique voice I've heard, and it was honestly the best performance I've heard at BYU. The song was absolutely fantastic and well written as well. There were many amazing performers and songs, and I was amazed with the creativity of some of the lyrics and melodies. It just re-inspired me to step up my own music, and I was so glad I went.