This semester I’m taking an institute class called Doctrine of the Gospel. I’ve only ever taken Book of Mormon classes hoping that it would help me improve my reading habits but I decided it was time for something different. I love this class and am learning a lot.
Yesterday in our class we were learning about the priesthood and we read some quotes that really made me think. We talked about how important a woman’s role is with the priesthood. I’ve never felt cheated by not having the priesthood and I understand that my role as a woman is just as important but maybe I didn’t realize just how important it really was. Here are some of the quotes we read:
Elder Boyd K. Packer: “It is interesting to know how man is put together-how incomplete he is. His whole physical and emotional, and for that matter, spiritual nature, is formed in such a way that it depends upon a source of encouragement and power that is found in a woman. When man has found his wife and companion, he has in a sense found the other half of himself. He will return to her again and again for that regeneration that exalts his manhood and strengthens him for the testing that life will give him. A woman has the privilege and influence to transform a man into an able and effective LDS priesthood leader. However, for this there are two prerequisites. First, she must want to, and second, she must know how. Part of knowing how includes the genius of encouraging him to meet his obligations without replacing him in his role, and without presiding over him.”
“However much priesthood power and authority the men may possess—however much wisdom and experience they may accumulate—the safety of the family, the integrity of the doctrine, the ordinances, the covenants, indeed the future of the Church, rest equally upon the women. The defenses of the home and family are greatly reinforced when the wife and mother and daughters belong to Relief Society. No man receives the fullness of the priesthood without a woman at his side. For no man, the Prophet said, can obtain the fullness of the priesthood outside the temple of the Lord. And she is there beside him in that sacred place. She shares in all that he receives. The man and the woman individually receive the ordinances encompassed in the endowment. But the man cannot ascend to the highest ordinances—the sealing ordinances—without her at his side. No man achieves the supernal exalting status of worthy fatherhood except as a gift from his wife.”
I wanted to share these because it made me realize just how special my role is and how much more so when I finally receive that blessing of becoming a wife and a mother.
No longer will I look at my own faults as reasons why I’m not married. Sure I have them, lots of them, but I also have a lot to give. I honestly believe, without tooting my own horn in any way, that I will make a good wife and a great mother. I might even be bold enough to say that some guy would be lucky to have me!!!
I don’t know about you but I like to feel special and sometimes I need outside sources to help me feel that way. This is something that makes me feel special. I have a very important purpose in this life and I know I’ve been prepared to fulfill that purpose whenever the time comes. I hope you girls out there all feel special too cause we are AWESOME*!!
*I have no idea why I use this word so much lately but when I feel strongly about something that is the only word that seem adequate to express it, maybe I watch too much Chuck J
