Volleyball Night: Taking responsibility for your own physical well-being

We had so much fun playing volleyball tonight with the 8-11 year old girls in our ward for Activity Days. For those of you who don't know, Activity Days is a wonderful organization set up by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where girls 8-11 years old meet twice a month to learn about the gospel, develop talents, serve others, and come closer to one another and God. 

Tonight we set up the volleyball net, bought a brand-spanking new ball (pretty tough on our tender arms!) and let the game begin! Our girls have been dying to play volleyball so we finally decided we should go for it and what a success. We spent the first few minutes just warming up, passing the ball back and forth while waiting for all the girls to show up. Once we had everyone we began with a small lesson and a BIG challenge!

"Developing Talents Activity #9":

"Plan a physical fitness program for yourself that may include learning to play a sport or game. Participate in the program for one month." Even adults have a hard time with this! 

I gave the girls about 5 minutes to think of their own personal exercise routine goal that they would like to work on for at least 30 minutes every day for a month. Some of the girls chose badminton, swimming, jogging, or other activities. When they'd thought of their ideas, and a few of them had shared, I passed out these butterfly trackers (idea altered from GospelGrabBag.com) to help them record their progress since a month is a long time:

Every day they exercise, they can cross off one of the spots. My partner and I will help remind the girls at our next activity of their goal and we've asked the parents to be supportive, encouraging, and good reminders at home too... because really a month can be a long time. In 4 weeks, we'll have the girls bring back their completed butterflies with them to our activity and get their Faith in God booklet signed off. 

Here's the kicker... I'm doing it too. In 4 weeks, I will bring back my Faith in God book and have the girls sign it off for me :) Hello, lots and lots of pilates. 

Keeping our bodies healthy and active is very important. Elder Jorg Klebingat gave a wonderful talk in General Conference April 2015 titled "Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence". He shared this message which I, in turn, shared with the girls, focusing on #2:

6 Practices to Get Rid of Evil Voices:

1) Take responsibility for your own spiritual well-being

2) Take responsibility for your own physical well-being

3) Embrace voluntary, whole-hearted obedience

4) Become really, really good at repenting thoroughly and quickly

5) Become really, really good at forgiving others

6) Accept trials as a part of this mortal journey

After the girls finished with the butterflies, we took them onto the court and I had two of our more experienced volleyball players teach the others how to serve, bump, set, and spike. We spent the rest of the evening playing volleyball and finishing it off with some very yummy and healthy smoothies. 

What active sport do you love to do? I challenge you, too, to plan a physical fitness routine around that activity and to do it for at least 30 minutes every day for a month. Tell us about your experience in the comments!