What would make me a better person?

This past Sunday was fast and testimony meeting at our church.  That means that anyone from the congregation can get up and share their testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I always love hearing from the little kids on these Sundays but this particular week was just plain awesome.  This cute little girl named Brooklynn got up in front of the entire ward and the first thing out of her mouth was: "I would like you all to think about what would make you a better person."

Her words hit me hard... hard enough that I grabbed my iPad and noted them immediately so I wouldn't forget her challenge.  I've been reflecting on her question the past few days and while the intent is definitely not to beat myself up over every single one of my flaws and weaknesses, it has been a good exercise of self-reflection, especially following conference last week.

I do have a LONG, ever-growing list of things in my head that I know would make me a better person, but here are the three things I am going to specifically focus on for the next few weeks:

1. Serve others.  It can be hard to find the energy to serve other people when you can barely find the energy to get through your day sometimes, but I always notice that I'm happiest when I'm focusing on other people.  I want to be the person that my family and friends know they can always count on when they are in need of something, no matter what it is.  I have wonderful people in my life that serve me in so many different ways and I love and appreciate them so much.  I just want to pay it backwards and forwards.
2. Give people the benefit of the doubt.  I attended a workshop called "Crucial Conversations" at work a few months ago and the biggest thing I learned was that in any situation we have to be careful to differentiate between actual factual information and the "story" we create in our mind based on our assumptions and biases.  We did some exercises where we had to analyze situations and sort out the facts from the "story" and it was pretty eye opening.  In most of the cases that I was positive I understood what had happened, I was absolutely WRONG when they revealed the back story.  The facilitator in that class taught us how to ask questions to get more FACTS and how to base our judgments on fact only and not our own perceptions.  I need to practice this more and not jump to such negative conclusions about people.
3. Take care of myself physically, spiritually and emotionally.  This may seem like a selfish thing to work on, but it has very unselfish intentions.  You can't take care of anyone else if you aren't taking care of yourself and I want and NEED to be able to take care of the people around me that I love in the best ways possible.  

So there is my starting point.  Thank you Brooklynn for getting me refocused this week.  You made me want to be a better person.