"It's a Miracle!"

A few weeks back, I saw a Facebook post from a friend in another state about how her participation in the Church's Self-Reliance Initiative had truly blessed her life.  I asked her if I could share her post with my sisters here in the Columbia Maryland Stake.  She agreed.  As I read her comment, it occurred to me that within our stake many sisters have been participating with the classes and focus groups offered through this initiative.  I would love to share experiences from those of you who have or who are participating.  Your experiences may be just what one of your sisters needs to encourage her to make a change, improve her skills, set a new goal, etc.  Please if you are willing to share - email me at loriepierce.rs@gmail.com.

Original Facebook post from my friend - Inger Orr:

"OK, I think YNAB is gonna save our lives....we actually spoke, with hope, about house projects that have been neglected for many, many years. We are seeing how quickly we should be able to get our debts paid off, then save for these projects. As we head toward our goals, we can actually start planning and pricing, then saving towards fixing up the house! It's a miracle! There are no words....I should say that this is thanks to the self-reliance program we are attending at church. The program has four areas of focus and we're attending the financial self-reliance section, which prompted me to look for a budgeting app, which led me to YNAB (thank you, again, Ken!)."

I also found this while searching the Church website for applicable info:

Adriana González



“When I asked about the bright blue table in the middle of Adriana’s kitchen, I learned that there was a time she had no table at all. Struggling to make ends meet, she took one of the Church’s self-reliance courses and decided that she could bake and sell bread—if only she had a table. She prayed for help and built a table from scrap wood.”
—Cody Bell, photographer

For more photos and story about Adriana, go to lds.org/go/21721.
Back to Portraits of Faith

Here are links to some good articles:

Let Us Be Self-Reliant and Independent
Self-Reliance Participants' Quotes From Around the World
Catching the Vision of Self-Reliance

For more information on the Self-Reliance Initiative you can contact our Stake Self-Reliance Specialist - Susie Rosenquist at ColumbiaMDStake.SRS@gmail.com.

You can also access the materials using the Gospel Library app under Self-Reliance or visit srs.lds.org.

-Lorie Pierce

New Self-Reliance Initiative

Most of you have probably been hearing announcements for the upcoming Self-Reliance Devotional.  This post will hopefully answer some basic questions about that event and about the Church's new Self-Reliance Initiative.

First the Devotional --
Sunday Jan 29, 2017, 7pm at the Columbia Stake Center.  It will run about 90 minutes in length.  Sunday dress is not required.  Non-LDS Church members are welcome to participate.

It is not a general 'come learn about self-reliance' event.  It has a specific purpose to organize attendees into groups/classes.

The following description is taken from FAQs for the Self-Reliance Initiative: Members.  If you still have questions, after using the link to read the FAQs page, please contact your Relief Society president or Bishop/Branch President.

"The devotional will be a meeting in which all individuals who have been identified by their ward councils, or individuals who wish to self-select into the initiative, will come together and learn about the church’s new Self-Reliance Initiative. Each participant will come ready to be assigned to one of four groups that will be learning over a 12-week period principles, skills, and habits in regard to Finding Better Work, Education for Better Work, Starting or Growing a Business, or Managing Finances (participants may choose a group before they arrive, decide during the devotional during an assessment exercise, or a bishop could assign a particular group based on a situation).  All participants will divide into these four groups, then each group will get together and decide where, when, and what time they will meet each week.  Each participant will be committing to a 2 hour meeting each week, for 12 weeks, and to complete 3-6 hours of assignments between each class."

Second the New Self-Reliance Initiative --
“Self-reliance is the ability, commitment, and effort to provide the spiritual and temporal necessities of life for self and family” (Handbook 2: Administering the Church[2010], 6.1.1).

The new initiative is all about learning and doing.  It is targeted to people's needs - areas they need to/want to improve their self-reliance in.  The program helps to connect people together in a facilitator - learner/doer context and allows us to truly make use of the storehouse of resources that exist within our members knowledge, skills, and willingness to serve one another.

The new initiative will be used by ward/branch leaders to help specific individuals they have reached out to, but members are encouraged to evaluate themselves and participate in the formal classes as they feel a need.

There are many resources available online specifically for this Initiative and for general self-reliance information.  If you have the Gospel Library app on your device - simply click on the Self-Reliance tab.  Using lds.org you would follow the links through Families and Individuals.  Or you can use these links:

https://www.lds.org/topics/pef-self-reliance/principles?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/topics/pef-self-reliance/manuals-and-videos?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/topics/pef-self-reliance/live?lang=eng

My husband and I are working though the booklet My Foundation together.  While we may not choose to participate in any of the 12 week classes, we are finding that reviewing these basic principles together is helpful.  The thing about self-reliance that my parents taught my is this - the more self-reliant I am the better able I am to serve and lift others, whether it be temporally or spiritually....and as I strive to center my self-reliance on my faith in Jesus Christ, I am blessed to be able to do what needs to be done.

-Lorie Pierce

Did You Know? Provident Living Resources

What is Provident Living?

"Latter-day Saints believe in being prepared and self-reliant. We believe in preparing educationally for employment, in preparing financially for a rainy day, and in preparing temporally for natural disasters or other challenges. Most important, we believe in preparing spiritually for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and for living with our Father in Heaven again. This approach to preparedness is called provident living. Living providently reflects our true eternal nature: we are “to act for [ourselves] and not to be acted upon” (2 Nephi 2:26). The Lord wants us to be responsible and independent (see D&C 78:14). He wants us to live providently because of who we become in the process: responsible, generous, mature, kind. For the more self-reliant we are, the better we can help our families and others. How can we feed the hungry if we ourselves are hungry? How can we impart knowledge if we ourselves lack knowledge? How can we build others’ faith if we ourselves lack faith?"  (Oct 2012 Ensign, "Provident Living Prepares Us For The Future")

The Church has an abundance of resources to help us in our efforts to live providently.  They cover topics such as Education, Finances, Food Storage, Physical and Mental Health and more.  We can each improve in some area and these resources can aid our efforts.  Spending a bit of time exploring their site Provident Living on lds.org would be a good thing to do.

As disciples of Christ, we covenanted at baptism "to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light...to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in".  (Mosiah 18:8-9)   Provident Living is a way of life that helps us to strengthen ourselves and prepares us to strengthen others.  As the old adage says: You can't draw from a dry well.  It is the same with our lives and our ability to share physically, emotionally, and spiritually with others in need.  But before we become overwhelmed with one more thing to do, we need to remember that the Lord expects us to do all things "in wisdom and order" (Mosiah 4:27).  We simply need to start somewhere and move forward.  As long as we are trying, the Lord will bless our willing hearts and efforts.  We will see the blessings in our own lives, in our families and in our ability to bless other's lives.

-Lorie Pierce