The world always clamors for our attention. As covenant women, we have to be diligent with how we spend our time and the things we work for and involve ourselves in. In order to stir up contention and to divide us, individuals, the media, and social groups engage in divisiveness and the politics of destruction to get Latter-day Saint women to contend with each other. So I asked over 100 friends and acquaintances what Mormon women want. Is it material things, or mostly things of a deeper nature? Although, I will not argue with my friend who said she’d like a nap and someone else to pick up the house once in a while, most of my friends indicated that they want spiritually lasting things over the things of this world.
So how do we do this? How do we obtain those spiritual, long lasting, eternal wants? And most importantly, what will we do about it?
The first idea, and the one that was most expressed by my friends, was the desire to be better at building Zion. Several said they felt like this could be accomplished if we ministered to each other better without excuses. I remember a few years ago our ward’s Relief Society President gave a presentation during class about turning Visiting Teaching into an opportunity to minister to each other, as Christ ministered to others. It was so revolutionary to me to think of Visiting Teaching in this way. Because the Lord establishes patterns for us to follow, learning to recognize and follow the pattern of Christlike ministering is something that everyone should strive for.
How did Christ minister to people? First, he saw them as they really were. He was and is able to do that, because he knew us before we were born. He knows us by name as we are here on earth, and he suffered and atoned for us in Gethsemane. Do you believe the words of Alma when he said, “…and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities” (see Alma 7: 11-12). We succor people as we try to see them as they truly are – as Christ sees them. Yes, some people have very rough edges, but sometimes those are the people that need us the most.
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Well said Joyce.
Thank you Geoff. 🙂
As I reviewed the essays about female suffrage in Utah (which once won was used to support the religious establishment) and the Mormon women who defied the courts (and spent time in penitentiary) rather than betray their ideals, it was amusing to see how confused modern analysts were. For a woman to agitate for the right to be married and practice her religion was something wholly outside their experience.
My wife says that what she wants is for leaders to quit pandering to her. She wants reproof, admonishment, and doctrinal instruction. She’ll give it and she’ll take it. She doesn’t need to hear the word “awesome” or its cognates any more.