As I was preparing for my youth group's January's topic of leadership, I came across the article "The Core and Crust of Leadership" (http://www.deseretnews.com/article/print/705368535/The-core-and-the-crust-of-leadership.html--short and completely worth it!). One thing that struck me was this particular quote: "Most individuals and organizations spend no less than 95 percent of their development efforts and resources on the crust."
(The core of leadership=character. It represents the essence of who you are and what you stand for.
The crust of leadership=all of your knowledge, experience and skills.)
As the author of the article put it: "Both parts are important, but not equally important."
Then, as I was going to do my spiritual prep for the day, I came across the following mormon message http://lds.org/pages/mens-hearts-shall-fail-them?lang=eng. (3 min...so worth it!)
After watching that, it struck me deeply that, despite what the world tells us is important, in these troubled times we need to be putting far more than 5% of our time into our core! Our core is essential, so that our hearts will not fail us and we will be prepared to be the leaders we need to be to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, liberate the captive, and succor the weak.
It brought tears to my eyes as I realized I have no idea what skills my kids truly need to succeed. There are thousands of people out there who are skilled...and scared. However, the truth that Heavenly Father affirmed to me this morning and what I do know is that my children need a core so strong and pure that it will carry them through whatever lies ahead of them. A strong core will give them the drive and determination to acquire the skills they need to face any situation.
And the youth know that. They can see through the often frilly feel of modern education. Their cores are starving for what is meaningful, what is real. Once that is filled, they will do what is necessary to become skilled and successful in a worldly sense, and go and do what their cores tell them is right.
Cool.
I also like what Elder Nelson says about "be patient with yourself...don't demand things that are unreasonable, just improvement. As you allow the Lord to help you through that, He will make up the difference." Awesome!
ReplyDeleteTesting your comments... But while I do that, this topic speaks deeply to my soul. A couple years ago I had an experience that told me I need to study leadership, but shortly after that I let myself be taken in another direction, and it took me a while to get back on track. I've recently made a commitment to myself to work more diligently on that, and like Jake says in Becoming Isaac, the feelings I have while doing that "might be a sign that I am doing what I was made to do." Thank your mom for discovering that book for us. :)
ReplyDeleteTesting again...
ReplyDeleteI will! Love the book!
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy to have a link to your blog! I had herd you had one, but never got a link to it. I love these thoughts about focusing on the core in our children's education. The more I homeschool, the more I realize how incredibly essential it is and how often it is ignored in order to teach young children skills that they are often not even ready for. I feel such peace in knowing that they will develop the skills they need for their missions if they have know how to work hard and have developed a strong relationship with God.
ReplyDeleteyou are so cool, Karen :)...I am excited to have your feedback, comments and insights!
ReplyDeleteMy friend Karen posted this on our youth group blog and I LOVED it!
ReplyDelete" Today in class I mentioned that (I could be wrong) I thought that having a strong core and a weak crust was impossible because if we have a strong core we are working on becoming like the Savior and the Holy Ghost would infuse us with curiosity (as Elder Bednar stated) - so we'd have a desire to learn new things. In other words: strong core=following Christ=becoming like Him=desire to work on the skills we lack.
My husband mentioned some examples of people who perhaps had a strong core and a weak crust - Obama (strong convictions, but maybe not enough experience), Rick Santorum (seems like a very good man, but maybe not a lot of organizational skills) were a couple he mentioned.
I got to thinking that most people, even great people, lack some of the skills they need to do even more good. Why do they lack these skills?
Maybe they just need time. Maybe they're given weaknesses that they may be humble? Maybe it's because Heavenly Father is placing them in a position that is beyond them in order that they may gain these skills? Maybe they have not been blessed with the gift of the Holy Ghost and are doing the best they can with the light they have? Maybe as we work on our skills, our character grows and as we work on our character our skill set grows?
So I still think that having a strong core with a weak crust is impossible, but maybe a pretty strong core with a slightly weak crust is more accurate. What do you think? Why would strong-cored people lack the skills they need? "