Whitney Ransom

Last Friday I was talking with Dr. Russ Osguthorpe, the Director at the Center for Teaching and Learning at BYU. He started telling me about an experience he had as a mission president. He said that sometimes he would have missionaries who would tell him that they just didn’t have the desire to serve. He told me he didn’t have the perfect solution for them at the time, but later he came up with the 3-D process. The three D’s are desire, decide, and determine.

Dr. Osguthorpe said that if individuals do not have the desire to accomplish something, they should skip past that step, and focus more on the decide step. Of course these three D’s work with all aspects of life. For example, say you are working on a paper, and you know you should add to it every day, but you just don’t feel like it. It’s more important to just decide that you are going to work on the paper, and then do it. As you are deciding and acting, the desire comes.

I have reflected on these words from Dr. Osguthrope and they really work. I go running Monday through Saturday. Some mornings, especially in the winter, I am not extremely excited about going outside to run in the freezing cold weather. However, I just skip past that desire part and move onto the decide step. I determine that I will run and put on my running shoes. Once I am out running, I am always happy that I made the decision to go.

So, the next time you are lacking desire on something that you know you should do, remember the three D’s: Desire, Decide, Determine.

I must admit that this is the first time I have blogged about kidneys. However, I have been thinking about this kidney experience and decided to share it today. My aunt has had kidney problems for more than 15 years. For the past year or so, she has been in need of a kidney transplant. In December 2006, she had been on dialysis and her quality of life was very low. My family members and friends had been praying every single day that she might receive a kidney transplant. Near the middle of December her weight had dropped to under 100 pounds and she was very sick and frail.

On Christmas Eve, she received a phone call from the hospital, with the individual saying that they had located a kidney for her and she needed to go to the hospital as soon as possible. One of the neat things about this experience is that my aunt is adopted and finding a kidney that matches her kidney is rather difficult. In fact, there are six possible areas in which a kidney can match up. My aunt, and her husband and family rushed to the hospital. Amazingly, the kidney matched up in all six areas!

My aunt received the kidney from a 26-year old who had died in a car accident that evening and his family donated the kidney so that she could live. My aunt had the operation shortly after and is doing great. I know that these events happened as a result of many prayers. I am also so grateful to the kidney donor and to his family.

My mother has told me countless times that if she is dying and some of her body parts are needed to keep someone else alive, she wants them to be given to the individual(s). I feel the same way. I’m so happy for my aunt who can now live a happy and healthy life. We love her so much!

Thank you to those who donate kidneys!!!

I decided today that I would write down a few of my resolutions for this year. Of course I am just going to write some of them down and hold off on the ones that are personal (a little too personal for the World Wide Web!) Here goes! In the year 2007…

1. I will blog more often, and when I blog, I will write about topics that are really important to me and/or of great interest.
2. I will run a half marathon and a marathon this year.
3. I will make a conscientious effort each day to drink more water. (And who really drinks 8 cups a day without that effort.)
4. I will receive my master’s degree in Instructional Psychology and Technology.
5. I will start a doctoral program.
6. I will make time to ponder and reflect.
7. I will learn to play tennis.
8. I will continue to practice the piano and the guitar.
9. I will continue to stay up on my Romanian by reading at least once per week, writing to my friends in Romanian, and visiting Romanians who live here in the US.
10. I will make at least one person happy every day.
11. I will post these resolutions on my blog to fully commit myself.

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” - Edith Lovejoy Pierce