With conference approaching I'm going out on a limb and expressing my opinion of women and the priesthood in a long, heartfelt blog post.
So many of our great members especially men have remained quiet on the issue out of respect for the small percent that want to be heard. I've listened, pondered, prayed and considered my own experience and this is my opinion on why it is not important for me to have the priesthood.
I would say I am a well educated woman. I received a graduate degree from a good University and I served an honorable full time mission. I once had a thriving career and income but I chose to leave it and raise my children while remaining home (this was a prayerful decision and we were given the financial opportunity. I do not believe this is the path for all women.). I am at peace with my role as a women, a mother and a homemaker and I do not feel like I need the priesthood to further my salvation or that of those around me, or further the church by having the priesthood expanded to me. I believe that there are greater spiritual gifts for me to focus on gaining that ARE vital to my salvation and that will allow me to be an instrument in the Lord's hands.
I once spent an entire year of my daily personal scripture study dedicated to the subject of charity. After that year I felt like I had only scratched the surface of this amazing and important topic. It changed my view of the purpose of this life and my method for becoming personally worthy to enter the Kingdom of God. As a woman I feel that I am at an advantage for learning this important gift of charity which is a qualifier to be worthy of eternal blessings.
My role as a co-creator and co-trainer with the Heavens is a great and unmatched responsibility, the highest known to mankind. It is a refiners fire and is not for the faint of heart or those who are inwardly focused. Motherhood is a dawnless calling made in the most profound way. There may have been no earthly hands on my head that pronounced me a mother but the heavens declared it. At some point there was an exchange with the eternities and spirits crossed the barrier of heaven and earth under my care. I am accountable directly to the Maker of the Universe for my calling as a mother. There is no one between me and him only an honorable and important counselor by my side. I am a mother placed in my position by divine design.
I am not saying that as women our only unique quality is that of being a mother. Although this honor is great, it is a tool to help us gain our next estate and to serve, as the priesthood is also a tool to serve. Women who are not mothers are also vital in every way to blessing others around them and capable of great and important callings.
As women we are special. For most of us we have an extra grain of compassion and unique protector and nurturing senses within us that by nature not all of our brethren get to enjoy. These extra senses can be put to good use in discovering opportunities to serve and to provide something that others can not provide themselves which in the end helps us develop charity, which is again an important qualifying attribute for us to enter into the next level of our existence.
Lately some have focused on what we as women can’t do instead of what we can. In my opinion the things that we “can’t” do have no bearing on our character and our salvation. Especially since a never ending field of service of “cans”, that are ever so sweet and qualifying, is already placed before us. Women have unique opportunities to serve in order to gain charity where most men can’t. Because of our compassion and our nurturing we can enter the homes and lives of our neighbors and friends in ways that may be culturally and naturally inappropriate for most men to do.
One personal example is when a single sister in my ward was very ill and had 6 small children in her care. Through the spirit I perceived a need and was able to enter her house, clean like I would have my own home and change and feed her children. In the end, although it was not my intent, these small acts blessed me 100 fold more than they did this sister. That night I knelt before my maker with a heart of gratitude as I felt the spirit whisper “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” In this process I became closer to heaven and more qualified as a servant of my Father in Heaven because I had the sacred advantage of being a women. As a mother myself I would gladly allow a home teacher to come and give me a blessing and perhaps serve in other ways but the up close personal care that so many mothers need with small children is wisely reserved for other women.
As a women “without” the priesthood. I was given a tool in my nature to serve as well. My glass is full. The blessings of my calling are sweet. Not only as a mother delighting in the amazing and the wonderful blessings of motherhood but as woman who was given sacred and natural gifts. There is so much to do, so many ways to serve that are kept close between me and the Lord.
To me the priesthood is a great opportunity to serve especially for our brothers who are also under constant attack. It is yet another tool to help them stay on par with the teachings of the gospel, to be held accountable to God and to serve. I am grateful for honorable men who spend time in the service of others and use their priesthood to bless lives. I do not feel that I am lacking anything because I do not serve in the same way.
Those who understand the priesthood know that it is a great honor but it is an honor of service. It is not a mark of exaltation or inequality. A man cannot place his hands upon his own head and pronounce his own blessing. It does not work that way. It was meant to be a tool to serve others and to guide the Lords church upon the earth. It was given to specific people throughout dispensations for specific purposes and matched the needs of the people. At one time it was only to the sons of Levi, at another it was given only to parts of the house of Israel and so forth. I am not ready for it to be expanded to me. My arms are already full and my heart is already bursting with the joys of serving in another ways that are just as, if not more powerful and essential to building the Lord’s Kingdom. Will the women ever “have” the priesthood or in other words will women ever have this tool of service? I don’t know but I do have a mortal understanding of the basic principles of faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and the ever important meaning of charity. I feel that I have enough for my salvation and that myself and others are not lacking because I do not have the priesthood. For you can have great power but if you have not charity you are not qualified to enter the Kingdom of God. Paul sums it up nicely with the following statement. “And although I have the gift of prophecy, and understanding all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2.)
I am grateful my Father in Heaven knew that in order for a person to truly develop and grow and fulfill the purpose of life they need to understand and be clothed with charity. To have it be the perceptual lens that they see the world and others. Charity is only obtained in the school of sacrifice, forgiveness, faith and continual endurance in the small and simple principles and acts of the gospel. It is more likely for a primary teacher, a parent, or selfless citizen to enter the kingdom of God by what they learn in dedicated service than someone who is distant from the meaning of true religion or has taken less opportunity for up close and personal lessons of charity despite their social standing.
Through personal prayer and fasting I feel that the purpose of my life and journey of my spirit is to learn the meaning of charity and one fast track to this is by being a parent. Can others learn it without this blessing and responsibility? Absolutely. If a heart is given to service then by grace in both cases (parent or not parent) it can be done.
If we explain the priesthood as something to be “had” as we do in our limited language than we tend to think it is something that we lack if we don’t have it but this is very untrue and opposite for us as women. It is given to us as a people. We can only receive its blessings if it is held by someone else among us. So in a sense women are those who are actually given the blessings of the priesthood even if they are not given this tool of service itself.
This life is not about what we are given or at what post we can declare ourselves. It is however about what we do, why we do it, what we give and only by giving and becoming charitable do we fulfill the purpose of life. It is not the grand callings, or positions or titles that change our nature. It is through small, simple and sometimes mundane tasks that great things (or people) come to pass. These make us whole and sculpt us into better serving our maker and in becoming more like our creator or our Savior who washed the feet of his friends and showed them how to eat with sinners and love others with all of his heart. It is charity.
In my opinion I was given an advantage in my quest for charity to be blessed as a women by being naturally nurturing and compassionate. It helps also that I am able, as a mother, to care for human beings in a way that only my Maker can understand and in a way that brings me a greater understanding of my Heavenly Parents. I am grateful my faithful brethren in the gospel have the priesthood and an opportunity to also serve uniquely, something to hold and offer in their own way that can bring them closer to qualifying for grand blessings at judgement day.
Please know that I know I am not perfect. I do not wish to lift myself up higher than others but share my view of the importance of my calling at this time.
This is only a simple unedited blog post. It is not meant to be doctrine, or the views by the LDS church. It is not meant to be disputed and I am sure there are abundant mistakes. It is only my simple understanding of the gospel and my sacred and holy calling as a woman and daughter of God. I feel content that my current calling and abundant opportunities to serve are essential in furthering the Lords work and my own eternal progression. I know that I am a loved daughter of God and that I am not lacking in any blessing or opportunity but that I have been favored and blessed beyond measure.
No comments:
Post a Comment