Last Sunday during Elders Quorum, we had a lesson on Chapter 20, The Women of the Church, out of the Book Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball.
Within this lesson we discussed the important roles the women in the Church have and how they are equal to us in our roles. What the late Elder John A. Widtsoe wrote pretty much sums it up:
“The place of woman in the Church is to walk beside the man, not in front of him nor behind him. In the Church there is full equality between man and woman. The gospel…was devised by the Lord for men and women alike”
We discussed the roles of men and women in the eternal sense: Women having the huge responsibilities of motherhood and sisterhood and men being given the responsibilities of fatherhood and the priesthood. However, it is stressed that “the man is not without the woman nor the woman without the man in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:11).
A brother mentioned the large role the Relief Society plays in the Church. He said “Without the Women, we would just be a bunch of men in a Church.” He also pointed out how the Relief runs the Humanitarian Aide that the Church has been recently recognized for during the Hurricane Katrina / New Orleans disaster.
The motto of the Relief Society is “Charity never faileth” (Moroni 7:46, 1 Corinthians 13:8) and they seem to be sticking close to their motto.
One last thing that left a deep impression on me and I hope it will with you too – A passage from the lesson chapter:
Remember, in the world before we came here, faithful women were given certain assignments while faithful men were foreordained to certain priesthood tasks. While we do not now remember the particulars, this does not alter the glorious reality of what we once agreed to.
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October 22, 2007 at 4:57 pm
marlajayne
I remember this lesson and many others like it. It (and your post) reminds me of a woman who was actually the wife of our branch president. He was a college professor, and she was a stay-at-home-mom who was beginning to chafe a little at the juxtaposition between her husband’s life and hers. He seemed to have all the fun, get all the praise, and meet with all the interesting people while she changed diapers and experimented with different floor cleaners.
As she was sharing her thoughts with me one day, I told her about a dentist’s wife that I had read about in the Ensign who had almost the identical same feelings. Finally, one day after the umpteenth person had told this woman how wonderful her husband was and what a great job he had done on the family’s teeth, she realized that while what her popular dentist husband was doing was important, what she was doing was even more important for she was preparing souls for eternity. Hmmm. It made her think (and me too!). In the grand scheme of things, which is of more lasting value?
All that to say is that one of the things I love about the church is that motherhood is perceived as seriously special calling. Oh, and I also love how President Hinckley reminds the men of how important we are!