Find where you stand so you can lift!

I decided to apply President Uchtdorf's council to "Stand close together and lift where you stand" to my relationships with my friends. We have a pretty closely knit group, and we love spending time together. However, I have recently felt that I haven't been growing any closer to them, despite the fact that I've spent more time socializing than usual in the past couple of weeks.

Earlier today, I sat puzzling over this issue. I just didn't feel like I was being much of a friend, and on top of that, my schoolwork was beginning to suffer. I realized that I needed to reset and reconfirm my priorities--to figure out where I stood. I asked myself these questions:

1. Who am I?
2. Why am I here?
3. Where am I going?
4. What am I going to do to get there?

These questions apply to the grand scheme and also to the smaller steps, like being a student here at BYU.

Now, I haven't really tested this yet, but I think the Spirit is telling me that if everyone in a team, a ward, or a group of friends asks themselves these questions and commits to the answers, and then does everything they can to help the others with their commitments, that pianos will be moved, testimonies will be strengthened, friendships will solidify beyond anything we can imagine at the outset! Nice run-on sentence. In other words, if we each stand solidly in our close circle, there is no fear of failure as we lift where we stand.

EYN