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Personal Responsibility and Initiative

Personal Responsibility and Initiative

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youth planting in flower bed

Purpose

Needs and opportunities are all around us. Don’t just wait for someone else to act—take action yourself! Follow the Lord’s counsel to “do many things of [your] own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:27).

Description

As a group, look for a need in your ward, school, or community and find a way to meet the need. Discuss specific tasks and make assignments for group members. See JustServe.org for ideas.

As you plan this activity, please follow the counsel given in chapter 13 of Handbook 2: Administering the Church (2010) and review “Safety Recommendations for Church Activities.”

More Ideas

  • Avoid the blame game—On cards or pieces of paper, write statements people might make to avoid taking responsibility, like “It wasn’t my fault” or “She made me do it.” Participants take turns drawing a card and changing the blaming statement into a responsible statement.

  • Guest speaker—Invite someone who is successful in a specific area of his or her life to speak to the group. Invite participants to prepare questions to learn more about the role that personal responsibility and initiative played in this person’s success.

  • Act it out—Choose several stories from the scriptures about people who took initiative (for example, the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14–30 or the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:30–37). Divide into groups and have each group act out a different story. Invite participants to share what they learned about taking initiative.

  • Your assignment—Plan a simple project such as planting flowers or cleaning up trash. Write assignments on cards to hand out to participants. On some cards, under the assignment, write, “Do not complete the assignment.” After participants realize that some group members aren’t doing their assignments, stop the activity and discuss the problems that happen when someone doesn’t do his or her assignment. Then resume the activity and have all participants complete their assignments.

Discussion

Encourage participants to talk about what they are learning. Discussions can take place before, during, or after the activity. You could ask questions like the following:

  • Why do you think it is important to take initiative?

  • When have you been blessed by taking personal responsibility?

  • What feelings or impressions do you have about personal responsibility and taking initiative?

  • How can you apply what you are learning in your life?

Related Resources

Sabbath Day Lessons

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