173. Resources for Answers and Peace concerning Women and the Priesthood.
The "Ordain Women" is truly a big issue, which needed to be clarified. It is sad that many will be misled by the group, and lose their same privileges in the Church if they do not repent. It can happen that when a family member or friend becomes disenchanted with Church doctrine, they end up following the misled person, to their own destruction. Church History is full of these kinds of situations. It may be that this issue and other contemporary issues will bring on persecution from the media, and other groups. We must read Pres. Monson's message in the last Priesthood Conference, April 2014, to be sure we will not be misled ourselves.
This is a good article I read on Meridian today: To be able to access the article with the videos, etc. please copy and paste this URL:
http://www.ldsmag.com/article/1/14521 (Turn on your sound)
Photo Credit—Deseret News
This is a good article I read on Meridian today: To be able to access the article with the videos, etc. please copy and paste this URL:
http://www.ldsmag.com/article/1/14521 (Turn on your sound)
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on TheReturnedMissionary.com. To see the original piece, click here.
To “Like” Meridian Magazine on Facebook, click here. To receive email updates,click here.
The purpose of this post is to point those who are peacemakers to a few resources to help clarify the confusion that has been created in the recent dust storm of media about LDS women and priesthood. These are not to be used as weapons in debates, but as personal resources for you if there is a debate inside your heart.
These resources have helped me to find that peace. I hope they help you too.
1. Elder M. Russell Ballard’s Speech at Education Week on the Essential Role of Women in the Church.
Skip to the 5th point he makes if you don’t want to watch the whole speech (though it is very powerful and you should some time):
2. “The Women of God” by Elder Neal A. Maxwell
Please click here to read the whole talk. It’s powerful. With Elder Maxwell, I am in awe of the divine role of women in God’s plan. To echo the testimony of Elder Maxwell, I share this quote that has changed my perspective about motherhood amidst my love of the heroes of history:
“[In the year 1809]. . . men were following, with bated breath, the march of Napoleon, and waiting with feverish impatience for the latest news of the wars. And all the while, in their own homes, babies were being born. But who could think about babies? Everybody was thinking about battles. . . .
“. . . in one year. . . between Trafalgar and Waterloo, there stole into the world a host of heroes! . . . in 1809. . . Gladstone was born at Liverpool; Alfred Tennyson was born at the Somersby rectory . . . Oliver Wendell Holmes made his first appearance at Massachusetts . . . and Abraham Lincoln drew his first breath at Old Kentucky. Music was enriched by the advent of Frederic Chopin at Warsaw, and of Felix Mendelssohn at Hamburg. . . Elizabeth Barrett Browning [was born] at Durham. . . . But nobody thought of babies. Everybody was thinking of battles. Yet. . .which of the battles of 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809? . . .
“We fancy that God can only manage His world by big battalions . . . when all the while He is doing it by beautiful babies. . . . When a wrong wants righting, or a work wants doing, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world to do it. That is why, long, long ago, a babe was born at Bethlehem.”1
3. Elder Dallin H. Oaks: “The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood”
Elder Oaks helps to clarify that “Priesthood keys direct women as well as men, and priesthood ordinances and priesthood authority pertain to women as well as men.” Click here to read the full text.
4. Book: Women and the Priesthood by Sheri Dew
5. Maurine Proctor (Meridian Magazine) “Church Disciplinary Councils VS the Court of Public Opinion”
A great presentation to help clarify that church disciplinary councils are never publicly announced. That they are councils of love for the purpose of blessing those involved. It also shows the difference between the divinely appointed order of the Church, set up through revelation and public opinion when it comes to the establishment of doctrine. Click here to read the article.
6. Women and the Argument for the Priesthood by Natasha Carrell.
She is a returned missionary and a lay-member of the Church who has a really non-emotionally-charged, straight-forward approach. If you don’t have time to read her post, just look at the flow chart she drew and it will basically summarize it. But read it if you have time.
7. Ashley Isaacson Woolley’s Post on Deseret News
Photo Credit—Deseret News8.The Story of the Two Silver Dollars – Gordon B. Hinckley
With all the contention that is going on with this issue, you may get bogged down with negativity. Don’t let it get to you. First, don’t participate in contention. This is not what Jesus would do.2 Rather, consider filling your time with random acts of kindness. Instead of getting frustrated, go surprise someone with kindness. Make someones day. Polish their shoes, do the laundry, wash their car, make some cookies and deliver them. Go do something good when no one is looking. It will fill your heart with peace and help you overcome the prop wash of the world’s contention. Contention only pushes the Spirit away, and to see clearly and discern between truth and error, we need the Spirit. If none of these other resources above help to bring peace to your heart, I promise that this one will.
9. BONUS: “The Real Meaning of the Word Help-Meet” by Heather Farrell
I loved this article, from the website www.WomenInTheScriptures.com A great resource! Wow. Well done Heather! Here is just a little snippet:
I know that understanding the real meaning of the term “help meet” earlier in my life would have made a huge difference in how I understood my role and mission as a woman. I think that if I had caught the vision of who we are as women and what a marvelous stewardship the Lord has given us I wouldn’t have wasted so many years and so much energy being angry that I couldn’t have a man’s stewardship. I realize now that true power come when men and women realize that they have been blessed with different gifts, abilities and stewardship’s and truly work together as equal partners to help each other be successful. The basic truth is that men and women need each other and it is only when they are united, body, soul and mind, that God’s work moves forth. We are nothing without each other and nothing without Christ.
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1.Spencer W. Kimball often quoted the author F. W. Boreham in his Mountains in the Mist: Some Australian Reveries– 1919, 166-67, 170↩
2.3 Nephi 11:29↩
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