We Are Different

2014 -  

There are endless reasons I love the 21st century: acne medicine, make-up, blow dryers, air conditioning, voting rights. The list could go on for the next five hours. Although I used to fantasize about being a pioneer when I was seven, I now would pick all the modern conveniences over traveling across the plains.

One thing I absolutely would have struggled with in the 1800s would have been female roles. My heroines today are empowered women. Yet, the 21st century still seems to have gone astray. It has gone from one polar opposite to the other. Now society preaches that women should be completely equal to men. This eclipses the beauty of our divine role that is equal in value to that of a man but definitely is different. Mother's Day has helped me reflect on why I love being a woman and why I love the women in our lives.

Carole M. Stephens, the first counselor in the Relief Society Presidency said, "Mother, motherhood, and mothering are defined in many ways in today’s world, but in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the word mother encompasses a woman’s eternal roles, her divine identity, and it describes her nature as a nurturer. With this perspective, women mother not only by giving physical life to a child but also by nurturing those around them. To nurture is to provide love and influence, to care for, support, educate, encourage, to protect, and to teach. To nurture is to help someone to grow and develop."

...We remember with love and gratitude the righteous women who have influenced our lives. We remember first the love of our own mothers, those who bore us. We remember the righteous influence of grandmothers, aunts, sisters, Primary teachers, and Young Women leaders. All of these women of God bore with us. They cared for us and about us. They taught us, encouraged us, guided us, and protected us. They influenced our lives for good. They understood that “whenever a woman strengthens the faith of a child, she contributes to the strength of a family—now and in the future” 

“Every sister who stands for truth and righteousness diminishes the influence of evil. Every sister who strengthens and protects her family is doing the work of God. Every sister who lives as a woman of God becomes a beacon for others to follow and plants seeds of righteous influence that will be harvested for decades to come. Every sister who makes and keeps sacred covenants becomes an instrument in the hands of God” 

As disciples of Jesus Christ, every covenant daughter of God has the responsibility to understand, live, and defend the divine roles of women, which include that of wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend, and to establish, nurture, defend, and strengthen families and homes.

“You are now placed in a situation where you can act according to those sympathies which God has planted in your [hearts]. … If you live up to your privilege, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates."

“The errand of angels is given to women;

And this is a gift that, as sisters, we claim: 

To do whatsoever is gentle and human,

To cheer and to bless in humanity’s name.

How vast is our purpose, how broad is our mission,

If we but fulfill it in spirit and deed.

Oh, naught but the Spirit’s divinest tuition

Can give us the wisdom to truly succeed.”

(“As Sisters in Zion,” Hymns, no. 309)

My mother, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, aunts, cousins, and friends have left a legacy for me of sacrificing self to love and nurture. My goal is to honor them by being a more gentle, compassionate, virtuous defender of the family.