Personal Progress Night

I'm currently serving as the Young Women Personal Progress Leader in my ward. On 5th Wednesdays, they have personal progress night. I knew there would be low attendance because it's summertime and half of sugar creek ward takes off to spend the summer out west. My goal was to make the activity fun, productive, and to fire the yw up about personal progress. 

I showed a 5 minute clip from the movie, Matilda. 

This particular scene takes place at a terrible school where a terrible headmistress, Ms Trunchbold, discovers a piece of her precious chocolate cake has been stolen and eaten by little Bruce Bogtrotter. "Much too good for children." She says. 

In an effort to publicly shame Brucie for his gluttonous misdemeanor, Ms Trunchbold calls an assembly and forces all the children to watch Bruce choke down a cake the size of a 30 lb turkey. 

 He gets like 90% through the cake and then starts to give up. It's pretty hilarious.

Ms Trunchbold stands over his shoulder feeding him oppressive negativity, calling him a failure and telling him he'll never do it. He can't do it. 

Bruce starts to look pretty bad. He's about to give up. Or throw up. 

Then, just as he's about to blow and Ms Trunchbold is thrilled at her successful hand in his Bruce's inevitable humiliating defeat, Matilda stands up in the crowd and shouts,  "Come on, brucie, you can do it! Eat that cake!" 

Another voice from the crowd, "yeah Bruce, be a hero!" 

And then the audience goes wild with support and chants "Bruce, Bruce Bruce!" So Bruce Bogtrotter gets all fired up, runs up to the front of the stage. He goes after the cake face first and finishes it like a crazy beast. Then he holds the giant empty cake pan up over his head like the Stanley cup in victory and everyone cheers. It's pretty awesome. 

What can we learn from Bruce Bogtrotter? The average American eats a total of about 4 whole cakes every year.  

No one should attempt to eat a 30 lb cake in one sitting. The personal progress program was not designed to be shoved and crammed in in one month as a graduating Laurel, either, but instead, spaced out over 4-6 years to assist in spiritual growth. It's not a checklist of requirements. It is a process.

 We don't eat 4 cakes in one sitting, and then hope to forget about the whole thing. We eat a slice or two at the birthdays and celebrations of people we love and share our lives with. We create lasting memories over cake. 

I don't want these girls to look at personal progress as a huge, impossible feat that they'll never accomplish. Bruce handled his cake with Ms Trunchbold over his shoulder like the adversary, telling him it's too hard, too much. He'll never make it. Satan will do anything to prevent these girls from strengthening their relationships with Jesus Christ. Satan whispers failure and defeat because he knows we can do all things through Christ. 

I want to be Matilda for these girls, shouting and cheering through the crowd of doubts, 

"Come on, Brucie, you can do it!" 

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. 

I gave them a "cake menu" (spreadsheet made by the talented Kasey) with all of the value experiences on it, broken down by how much time should be invested in each. So many YW want to work on personal progress, but just have a hard time getting going. Last nights challenge was to just take a bite of the cake. Or dish up a slice. They can look at their summer calendar and if they see a few busy weeks ahead, maybe they'l work on an experience that was designed to be done in one Sunday afternoon, or maybe they see an unscheduled July and want to focus on a value experience that involves a 4 week spiritual feast.  Wherever they are, they can take a bite. 

Look at Brucie.  How great is that chocolate covered face?! 

He did it! And so can you, girls.

After the message, I had a cake decorating activity planned for them.  I baked a dozen individual cakes and colored buttercream frosting in every color of the rainbow. We had fun creating together.