Podcast 3 Intro

March’s Topic: The Evolution of Personal Identity

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The Round Table wants to invite our listeners to participate in a three part challenge for the month of March. Our podcast focused on the concept of identity and self within the LDS church and we want to encourage you to more critically discover, understand, and share your own identity within the gospel. This challenge will be about discovering who you are, who you want to be and how to find joy in the identities of others.

First, we encourage you to identify one core aspects of the gospel that anchors you (i.e. a personal relationship with God, Christ’s love, service, eternal families, etc.). Focus on this for the entire month. Let go of all other concerns and distractions. Try to see this principle in every encounter, lesson, and calling you have.

Second, find your female religious role model. It is important to have someone in your community to look up to. If she is alive, talk to her. Ask bold questions. Discover how she navigates her identity in the church. If she is gone, research about her. Analyze how she makes important decisions and incorporate those strategies into your life.

Finally, many women fall into the trap of identifying themselves in opposition to others. We encourage you to find ways to avoid this. We want women, especially Mormon women, to realize that another’s success is your success- not your failure. Cultivate your own divine gifts and encourage others to do the same. We are all different for a reason. Let us celebrate that!

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Guest Bio: Catherine Matthews Pavia, also known as Bluestocking Mama, has worked as a cherry sorter, file girl, piano teacher, writer, editor, and college professor. She currently works full-time as the art director, events planner, chauffeur, and referee for her 3 children, ages 7, 5, and 1, and part-time teaching writing at ASU. She spends a good deal of her time running—be it down the supermarket aisle after an escaped child, around the living room in a heated game of flag football, or on early-morning runs/therapy sessions with her neighborhood friends. She earned her BA and MA in English from BYU and her PhD in English from UMass Amherst.