I didn't focus so much on me.

Right. This, this challenge, probably more than anything, has taught me the benefits of just looking outside of myself. I knew that as a concept beforehand. I just was never good at practicing it because I didn't really have anything to keep me accountable.

Hi, I’m Dax. I’m currently a full-time college student, 21 years old.

And for the past few years in my life, I've been focusing really hard on becoming more like Jesus Christ.

I don't know about you, though. I really struggle doing this.

I tend to be too self-focused and worried.

But the past 30 days, actually,

I think I finally hit something that works. And all it really came down to was making a plan each day to focus on someone else and to just get outside of myself.

I really want to be hopeful and optimistic and positive and be more of a reflection of Jesus Christ.

For the next 30 days, I want to select one attribute of Jesus Christ and try to live it to its fullest on that day.

I had a few conversations where I was remembering like, okay, I need to be focused on listening, right? It’s not just about me. It’s not just about saying, “Hey, hello,” and going about my day, that I should sit down and have a chat with them. And so I did.

And I got to learn, like, these really cool facts about people.

And so you make these, like, little connections that I wouldn't have gotten to make if I wouldn’t have listened properly or asked questions.

The parable of the lost sheep where Jesus Christ leaves the 99 to go and find the one who's lost.

So for today, I am going to be concentrating all my efforts on serving just one person in particular. I just got to share my thoughts about especially how Jesus Christ can help us to change. Right? It is honestly really amazing to see that— just doing like these little things of like, I’m trying to have a focus on Him. I’m trying to be like Him and it just changes

things and it makes it so much better.

I know that advocates speak for and speak on behalf of another person’s character. Whenever I can

in conversations and interactions with people that I’ll mention how good other people that I'm around are

and just like basically, like, do like hidden compliments. And since I'll be seeing a few people today and a good way to do a conversation starter is always to bring them cookies. So I made some like mint chocolate cookies

and we'll just see what happens from there. So I just wanted to give a little bit of an update about something that I've been noticing over time as I've been working on this challenge that is actually really cool.

Um, I've started to get more and more of these carryover effects, right? Where the attribute that I’ve been working on for a day, it'll pop up in my head again as I'm working on another attribute on a different day.

So gratitude has been going actually pretty well today so far.

I just spent that time just texting a bunch of people

I genuinely am grateful for, just like going through my contacts, going through like Facebook Messenger and things like that, and just trying to find those people in particular that like made an impact on me.

Okay. So I'm pretty excited about today.

I get to work on being a thoughtful son, so I wrote my mom a haiku.

It’s, you know, it was like, it was pretty silly,

but it was just like a little thing of, like, what I...

Oh, some of the memories that I love about my mom and I have been worried,

too, that like, oh, my efforts aren't enough and that there are too little of things and that it's it won't make a difference. But, I think as someone once told me

to never suppress a generous thought,

that the small things they count and they add up.

But I happened to think of someone who they’re also kind of in the midst of like studying for an exam that they’ve taken, like, I think it’s like five times already now.

They keep studying and restudying for it.

I thought they might be feeling discouraged. And so I whipped up a batch of peanut butter cookies and just went over to their apartment around like eight at night and

just handed off the plate and just said, like, good luck.

You’re going to do it. I know, I know you can do it. And they just had like a big smile on their face.

And they like called me as I was driving home and they were just like, Oh, they're so good. And that, like, that meant something.

So I've decided as part of trying to be kind today that I wanted to bake something for someone. Surprise, surprise.

But I knew that someone had their birthday this week, so I decided to bake up a special batch of midnight brownie cookies.

And I had the opportunity to share about the light of Jesus Christ and to share about what I know to be true about Him and

I think, I’ve done that in at previous points in my life.

And I think I forgot how good it feels. How authentic I feel when I do that.

I've missed the opportunity to do that.

He's always a good brother and a good son.

But I've seen him be more purposeful with that. Instead of saying, Mom, I hope you have a good day.

He asks, Mom, what can I do for you today? Or How can I serve you?

Just the other day we were getting in his car and I noticed two granola boxes and asked him if he forgot them to give them to a friend or to take them somewhere. And he said, No, Mom, when I'm on my way to the university or to church, if I see a homeless person, I stop and give them a granola bar.

And he said, Mom, just even a granola bar and a smile so that they know that someone cares.

Okay. So I made it to the end of the 30-day challenge,

and I just wanted to take some time to reflect on what it's taught me so far.

I know people say that a lot of like, what would Jesus do? But in a literal sense, what would He do if He were in my situation and my circumstances with the time that I have, with the responsibilities I have? What would He be doing?

That changes how I saw my day in the past. I've always been frustrated with myself because I feel like I'm stagnating, that I’m not really becoming like Him.

But I think it’s because I keep focusing on me, on, this is wrong with me. I don’t like this about me. I want to change.

It doesn't work that way, but it does work when it's centered on other people.

It's almost miraculous.

How nice it is, how freeing it is. To think about other people.

Instead of yourself for once.

Thank you so much for watching my 30-day challenge.

If you found my experiences to be helpful or something cool that you learned,

please let us know down in the comments and of course make sure to subscribe.

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