Woman's Progression

In honor of Women's History Month, I thought I'd publish another interesting piece by Emmeline B. Wells, my favorite suffragist. Some of the more compelling reasons for supporting a woman's right to vote were crafted by her hand. As we enter an election year in the United States, each of us should consider the lessons of the past and how they can school us in difficulties of our present times.

Woman's Progression 

 Published: 15 February 1878

The newspapers of the day among other items of importance bring us good news of the progression of Woman’s Cause. The past year has given strength to the work by many large conventions, calling together the strongest and most powerful minds from different parts of the country, and these women, earnest and zealous, have presented in the most forcible manner the ablest and most direct arguments in favor of woman’s elevation. The right to equal opportunities of education is one of the points in question, and much has been done to give woman opportunities for cultivation in the higher branches of literature recently.

But man of those who do not directly oppose it, (knowing woman has the best side of the argument) sneer, and ridicule and insinuate, and in all sorts of indirect ways use their influence to keep women from pursuing those avocations that are considered the most eligible for man.

The better educated woman is, the more she can accomplish for the good of all; the better she can perform the duties of wife and mother which we consider the highest duty except obedience to God. One plea that many advance against woman’s higher education, and freed, is that it will unfit her for the position nature has assigned her as wife and mother. But we sincerely believe it will only the better qualify her. The mother who has strong characteristics properly developed will transmit them to her children in a marked degree. This is a fact readily conceded by every person of good judgment; then the more highly educated the mothers are, the greater power of intellect the children will inherit.

So long has custom tyrannized over woman to keep her in subjection, that it will only be by small degrees women themselves can comprehend the advantages arising from the progress of independence of thought and action, and a knowledge for themselves.

The fields of usefulness now open to woman are widening every day. And there are some good men—here as elsewhere, who welcome her to the avenues which lead to a higher range of intellectual and spiritual culture. But men cannot walk by faith as women can, it is not so much in their nature; they want facts all the time, and the results of the practice; and it will take a little time to prove whether the condition of society is materially benefitted by woman’s broader expanse of labor in the public, as well as private interests of humanity. Some things have been already proved; that women are capable of mastering, as thoroughly and perfectly as men, the theory and practice of teaching, the science of medicine and anatomy, and many other branches of education and art. The one strong point that opponents use is, that woman will lose her indefinable charm, designated womanliness, when she can discuss knotty questions, has strong opinions, can match herself with man in force of character, and intellectual ability, instead of sweetly assenting to whatever opinions he may hold, smiling all the while he is pitilessly crucifying all the finer feelings of her soul.

Why is it not possible for man and woman to love each other truly, and dwell together in harmony, each according to the other all the freedom of thought, feeling, and expression they would grant to one who was not bound to them by indissoluble ties; instead of the wife giving all—that she may sit by his hearth, bear his children, preside at his table, and merge her into his, to the extinguishing and crushing out of all desires, ambitions, tastes, or capabilities for anything save what he deems proper, or right, his wife should engage in. Let man also prove himself noble enough to share with her such laurels as either may be able to win in the battle field of life, instead of arrogating to himself the right to dictate to her in all things, saying, “thus far shalt thou go and no farther.”

We do not believe in pouring forth grievances, or reiterating wrongs; there are not arguments, and men will not have them; they must be shown the happy side of the future, not the dark annals of the past. That we must leave—and we know there is One, Who would not even suffer a sparrow to fall to the ground without His notice. Jests never turned away form woman in scorn, or loathing; and woman never sued to him in vain. Think of this, you who sit in the courts of the nation, and sneer at the mothers, wives and sisters who entreat you to devise some methods to have from wholesale destruction, by intemperance and other crying evils, their sons, their brothers, their loved once, their fellow-men, or allow THEM a voice in the laws of the land, that will at least give them legal rights to protect themselves and their little ones.

Of what are ye afraid? Has not woman extended to you the hand of sympathy, meted out measure upon measure, pressed down and running over with love and heavenly charity? What more can she do to win your confidence in her desire to improve the condition of all mankind? Has she not unselfishly sought your interest in everything which pertains to home-happiness! Will she slacken her efforts to do you good because she has a wider field to labor in, and greater inducements to stimulate her exertions? No! Woman’s happiness can never be complete without man’s love; but that love molded and tempered by its assimilation to the exalted phase of woman—with all her powers and attributes awakened to a supreme consciousness of her true mission as man’s real help meet, will give you participation in a purer sentiment, where there will be scope for all the love implanted in the breast of man.

There is no doubt but that the concentrated energies and eloquence brought to bear upon Woman’s cause in the National Congress, this present year will be long remembered, and even those who profess to think lightly of it, and treated it with contempt and withering sarcasm, will not be able to forget the sublime enthusiasm, the dignity and grace with which these noble women plead for the rights of which they are unjustly deprived.

There are some valiant workers in the cause of woman’s progression—we have them here in our midst; women who are laboring earnestly in improving and elevating the condition of society, whose efforts are untiring in seeking to promote a higher and more exalted feeling and sentiment in the minds of the young, than to spend their time in frivolity and nonsense. Women who are prepared and fortified to endure the sneers and opprobrium of those who do not yet appreciate the cause they have espoused; who in all humility seek for the “grace” of God to aid them, in their efforts to accomplish their noble purposes.

--Emmeline B. Wells, Woman’s Exponent

"Real Women"

Who and what are they? Not the painted dolls and votaries of fashion, whose sole earthly happiness seems to consist in being elaborately dressed, and daintily perfumed, and who so disfigure themselves, and disarrange and [blank] up their apparel that it is difficult to tell whether they are real or imaginary beings: counterfeits of womanhood; false to nature, false to God who made them perfect. Everything which tends to make them false, hypocritical and untrue, perverts their own real nature; God made woman beautiful, if not in the face and figure, yet the very nature of her mission on the earth, helps to make her “a thing of beauty.” God intended her for a real comforter, a real help-meet, what could be more charming, more satisfying than tis, were it carried out to the very letter as he designed it should be?

How few there are who understand (even in part) the importance of the position they occupy, and for which they were specially created, and strive to preserve their own identity, their own individuality by being real; it is a very simple, common-place word yet it comprises so much.

What man who possesses pure, manly instincts, but in his heart were he left free to choose, untrammeled by worldly traditions and distinction, would prefer a real woman to an artificial one; one who would be content to fill a home-sphere, proud and happy in the consciousness of being really worthy her husband’s love and esteem.

Merle De Vore Johnson, 1909
"Woman's Sphere"

Every day we hear it repeated, “a stylish woman,” “a magnificent woman,” “a superior woman,” “a literary woman,” or “a strong-minded woman.” A hundred and one adjectives are applied to the sex, but whoever stops to think of the Real Woman—the real living help? She who quietly, without ostentation or parade, fulfills the small, home-duties, cheerfully, patiently, heroically and hopefully, unknown save to those who constitute her own immediate circle, and often unappreciated even there: She has not wealth perhaps, or even a superior education, but if she has strong common sense, and an active mind, she is just as capable of filling her mission here, and of standing in her own real place hereafter, as though she was a favorite of fortune or the idol of the people.

One of the popular writers of the present days says “Man is what woman makes him;” and I would kindly beg to add, “women are what men have made them.” A quiet, unpretending domestic woman is a nobody nowadays, in the sight of the world. A woman feels compelled to distinguish herself in some way or other, in order to elicit even the smallest share of attention from these would be “Lords of Creation.” In the estimation of her own husband, (if she happens to be favored with one,) she is simply a necessity in his establishment, to manage his house, to cook his dinner, to attend to his wardrobe, always on hand if she is wanted and always out of sight when not needed. He doesn’t mind kissing her occasionally, when it suits him; but he never thinks she has any thoughts of her own, any ideas which might be developed; she must not have even an opinion, or if she has she mustn’t express it, it is entirely out of place; she is a subject, not a joint-partner in the domestic firm.

If men are really superior to women, let them show themselves so; prove themselves “pre-eminent,” “akin to God.” This is what a real woman craves; something worthy of reverence, or worship even, second only to her Creator. But failing to find this, she betakes herself to other things, finding no superiority in her “Lord and master” nor even acknowledgement of wifely duties, she seeks for happiness through another channel easier of attainment. If a woman is real enough to let her husband know she is devotedly attached to him, in nine cases out of then, he only makes use of it to her disadvantage; consequently it has become general among women to advise each other to disguise their real feelings, afraid to acknowledge them out of policy.

Where can be the real happiness, the one-ness? Is not this teaching women to be false to their own hearts?

Man, with all his boasted knowledge, and practical skill in reading character, is still in comparative ignorance of how women feel, or what they are. He regards them as toys, to be picked up and cast aside at will; very well for pastime playthings, or for housekeepers; but to consider them real, genuine, rational beings, is a novel idea; they are vain, frivolous, fickle deceitful, incapable of performing any important part in life creditably.

I must acknowledge the real genuine article is hard to find, in this enlightened nineteenth century; but shall we succumb to this foul aspersion upon our sex? Shall we or content with a false life, a counterfeit? Shall we be real women? We Latter-day Saints, who profess to aspire to something purer, higher, nobler and better than the world? We are seeking to understand ourselves, our own organization, our own individual life; making a real use of our time, having a real purpose in all that we do, n all that we say, living a real life; laying up real treasures in the kingdom of heaven; not copying the fashions of the world, or their manners, but improving for ourselves, guided and directed by the best talent, judgment and skill we possess. It is very easy to copy, there is nothing real in that, not even a freshness about it, it is only imitation; like the silly school-girl, who, too idle to exercise her own dormant faculties, copies from her class-mate’s slate, forgetting it will be of no benefit to her in future; it serves her purpose for the time being, it is sham, she passes it off for real information.

Let us be more cautious—let us know for ourselves—that will make us real. We shall then be better equaled to accomplish that we are striving to attain to, not following a shadow, or a phantom, but that which is real; a real Gospel, which will elevate, refine and purify, bringing us back into the real presence, of Him whose aim and design, in our creation, was to make us real women.

Emmeline B. Wells, Dec 13th 1873

Published in the Woman's Exponent, 1 January 1874

Relief Society and the Priesthood: Then, Now, and Forever

I wrote a post discussing the power of women's virtue here. I'd like to expand upon those thoughts to an organizational level, and explore the great gift God has given the Church by restoring the Relief Society to the earth.

The following is an article from the Deseret News, published in April of 1868, available here.

FEMALE RELIEF SOCIETY 

--by Eliza R. Snow--

This is the name of a Society which was organized in Nauvoo, on the 17th of March, 1842, by President Joseph Smith, assisted by Elders Willard Richards and John Taylor. Although the name may be of modern date, the institution is of ancient origin. We were told by our martyred prophet, that the same organization existed in the church anciently, allusions to which are made in some of the epistles recorded in the New Testament, making use of the title, "elect lady."...

From this we see that the Relief Society was just as much a part of the gospel Restoration as the priesthood. For women to be organized and contributing to the affairs of the church is a function of the Plan of Salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ. That gospel is incomplete without Heavenly Father's daughters.

If that's the case, what does He intend for them to do? We find those answers in the very next sentence:

"This is an organization that cannot exist without the Priesthood, from the fact that it derives all its authority and influence from that source."

The Relief Society has power, authority, and influence in the priesthood!

Whoa! Are you tellin' me that everything I've heard about the powerless Mormon woman is a lie? That she has had power and authority in the gospel this WHOLE time? That she can act in God's name through her access to the priesthood, and Joseph Smith taught that from the very beginning?

Yes, dear. That's what I'm telling you. And if you'll come with me to the scriptures, we'll explore a few things about the calling of an "elect lady."

There may be more references that are not so explicit and of which I'm unaware, but one New Testament reference to an elect lady occurs in 2 John 1: 1. A few verses of note from the epistle directed to the elect lady, which hold an amazing amount of relevance to the Relief Society of today:

5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. {Note: the classical Greek word for love used in these verses is agape, also translated as charity. Charity Never Faileth? Anyone?}
7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:

Also note in verse 13 it refers to an elect sister. This phrase, along with elect lady, baffles Bible commentators. Who is the elect lady? Why isn't she named? Is she even a person? If not, who/ what is her sister? Because the verses refer to the elect lady both singularly and collectively, it's difficult to identify who she is by the sparse details provided. I read an online commentary here which presents a few ideas on the Greek, but ultimately decides the elect lady must be a name for a single congregation of the church.

To say it's a congregation seems simple enough, without ever having to acknowledge the radical notion that women actually participated in and mattered dearly to the early Christian church.

We must also recognize that just as God is infinite, eternal, impartial, and unchangeable (1 Nephi 10: 18, Moroni 8: 18), His gospel is infinite, eternal, impartial, and unchangeable. If He empowered women before in His covenant, they will always be empowered under His covenant.

We see this power throughout the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, beginning with Emma Smith, long before the Relief Society was ever established.

In July of 1830, the Prophet Joseph Smith revealed the following unto his wife Emma from the Lord Jesus Christ:

3 Behold, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou art an elect lady, whom I have called.
5 And the office of thy calling shall be for a comfort unto my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun., thy husband, in his afflictions, with consoling words, in the spirit of meekness.
7 And thou shalt be ordained under his hand to expound scriptures, and to exhort the church, according as it shall be given thee by my Spirit.
8 For he shall lay his hands upon thee, and thou shalt receive the Holy Ghost, and thy time shall be given to writing, and to learning much.
9 And thou needest not fear, for thy husband shall support thee in the church; for unto them is his calling, that all things might be revealed unto them, whatsoever I will, according to their faith.
15 Keep my commandments continually, and a crown of righteousness thou shalt receive. And except thou do this, where I am you cannot come.

Notice Christ, through the mouth of Joseph Smith, has called Emma an elect lady 12 years before the Relief Society would be restored. The Lord was not giving Emma the charge to babysit her husband. He was teaching her about her access to the priesthood.

Women do not function in the offices of Melchizedek because they have their own office as wives and mothers in God's covenant. To reject that office and calling it to reject His power.

Emma's calling also goes beyond her personally, in her ordination to "exhort the church." That sentiment, along with "elect lady" require the Relief Society to truly be fulfilled. These phrases function as prophesy that not only would the Relief Society return, but that Emma's eternal destiny was tied to it. She would become the Relief Society's first president--a choice daughter of eternity not just by association with her husband, but to the Restoration of the WHOLE Church. A Church that would be incomplete so long as the women were not formally organized and given power and authority within it.

There are women in this Church who look at verses 6 (not shown above) and 7 and wonder why women are not given such responsibilities today--why they no longer have some of the same responsibilities women had early in the Restoration. These women argue that our power has been taken from us. They don't see how covenant motherhood IS powerful, and has a much greater purpose than bearing children--as important as that also is.

Julie B. Beck, the Relief Society general president, has given many talks over the past few years that outlines where women's access to power and authority is.

In Mothers Who Know, she taught that women's power comes through motherhood.

"Nurturing requires organization, patience, love, and work. Helping growth occur through nurturing is truly a powerful and influential role bestowed on women." 

People criticized President Beck in this message because they never stopped to consider that this kind of influence would require them to access the power of the priesthood, and to have the authority to USE IT.


In Fulfilling the Purpose of Relief Society, she makes her message to the sisters of the Church even more plain when she teaches:

"Just as the Savior invited Mary and Martha of New Testament times to participate in His work, women of this dispensation have an official commission to participate in the Lord’s work."

But perhaps that's not plain enough. Let's go to her most recent talk. You don't have to read anything but the TITLE to see where she's been going with this the whole time!

And upon the Handmaids in Those Days Will I Pour Out My Spirit is not just a title. It's a prophecy found in Joel 2.

28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

In the Church we're so used to hearing we're in the latter days that we wouldn't know the call we've been waiting for if we heard it--the one that tells us when the Savior is coming.

You wanna know how I know that? Because the call--or some portion of it--came this most recent session of General Conference, and almost nobody heard it.

Go back and read President Boyd K. Packer's talk. Read it like he just told you something extremely important. This line should scare you:

“The authority of the priesthood is with us. After all that we have correlated and organized, it is now our responsibility to activate the power of the priesthood in the Church.”

What's he talking about? Haven't we been acting in power the whole time? We have temples and ordinances and callings and stakes and all that. What else is left to activate?

To answer this, I direct you to D&C 113:

7 Questions by Elias Higbee: What is meant by the command in Isaiah, 52d chapter, 1st verse, which saith: Put on thy strength, O Zion—and what people had Isaiah reference to?
8 He had reference to those whom God should call in the last days, { who should hold the power of priesthood to bring again Zion, } and the redemption of Israel; and to put on her strength is to put on the authority of the priesthood, which she, Zion, has a right to by lineage; also to return to that power which she had lost.

The purpose of the Relief Society is the SAME as the priesthood: to build Zion on the earth. I've been in enough lessons on Zion to see how people sell her short--Zion is wherever you live, they say. The Church has been building her all this time. It's nothing to get excited about.

I'm telling you, when God wants to hide something, He puts it in the Pearl of Great Price.


Read Moses 7: 62:

62 And righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; his resurrection from the dead; yea, and also the resurrection of all men; and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, unto a place which I shall prepare, an Holy City, that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of my coming; for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem.

The purpose of the priesthood and the Relief Society is to build Zion, which will usher in the Second Coming of the Savior.

So when I read and hear comments from women about how lame, how unenlightened, how boring Relief Society is, the nicest thing I can think to say is: if you can't get excited about participating in Christ's return to the earth, I sure hope you like maggots.

Women of Faith and Priesthood Power

Some women in the Church believe that men are superior in authority to women because women do not hold the priesthood. Believing this opens the door for women to feel alienated and ostracized from the Church because they do not act in the offices of the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood.

What these women do not understand is that the priesthood has much more to it than these two offices. The priesthood is the very power of God Himself. It's the power by which He does everything. It's the power by which the planets are fixed in their orbits. The priesthood, by very definition, is one thing: the power of God. And while that power attends the offices of the priesthood, acting in those offices is not the only way to access the authority to use that power.

Women’s access to the priesthood is different because her calling is different. Her calling is to motherhood, and many women have looked at this as a slap in the face, as if that calling limits her in comparison to the men of the Church. But I would argue that Motherhood—the covenant motherhood we talk about in the Church—is a sacred office closely tied to the power of God, in which He gives His daughters the authority to act in His name to do His work. Her inherent virtue, combined with the Holy Ghost and her covenants, give her power and authority in her own right to minister to God's children.

A Noble Birthright

I know that I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father—a literal daughter of Almighty God. This means, in the words of Relief Society President Julie B. Beck, that I have a “noble birthright.” I have power and authority through my influence as a daughter divine. I know I have power and authority to act in God’s name according to my virtue, talents, blessings, and covenants. This divinity is seamlessly associated with my sacred role as a mother, but exists as my inherent virtue, compassion, and goodness that I can strengthen even if I never have any of my own children.

I have learned from experience that motherhood has so much more to it than bearing children and taking care of their temporal needs. A calling to motherhood is a call to be selfless and powerful, connected to God in a way that no other relationship can ever begin to match or imitate.

I learned much of this from my mother, who is not a member of the Church and knows very little about what we teach. She did not teach me the gospel, or the doctrines of salvation. She did not teach me to know Jesus Christ. But she did teach me to be a strong woman, to know what I want, and to work hard for it in the face of poverty and desperation. She taught me to dig deeper and climb higher towards worthy goals, and to reach beyond myself and what my life would give me. She wanted me to have a life that was worth something because of the things I could do with it, and she has never let me lose sight of how much she knows my life is worth.

She knows these things about me, even though she does not have the gospel, because she is a mother. She has been my mother all my life and the love she has for me helps her to teach me those things which are even greater than she is, and yet are so much a part of who she is. She is not a perfect mother, but she has shown me so much of what it means to be a good mother. Her love for me, despite all opposition and all odds, helps me to understand the infinite love of God. Her unfailing example helps me to understand the relationship between women and the priesthood—beautifully ironic by the fact that she does not even know what the priesthood is.

A good mother—one who sees all of God’s children as her children—and a Saintly woman of faith are one in the same to our Church in its teachings. And with good reason, because a good mother is everything a good woman could ever hope to be. She is a homemaker, a mechanic, a doctor, a teacher, a scientist, a ruler, and a friend to all who know her—especially to her children. Else, how could she nurture them in all the directions their lives will take together? How can she guide them to an infinite God if she herself is not closely connected to Him, and near to all that is infinite? That connection to God will require all of her skills, talents, hopes, intelligence, dreams—literally all she has to offer. When she does this, a woman of faith nurtures her children in the ways of the Lord.

A Sacred Partnership

In his most recent General Conference address, Elder Bradley D. Foster quoted President Joseph F. Smith when he taught “The love of a true mother comes nearer [to] being like the love of God than any other kind of love.” To nurture God’s children in the gospel is a calling for women to come nearer to God than in any other capacity, to partake of His loving presence, and to bring their children into that presence. Little wonder Elder Richard G. Scott taught in that same General Conference “The most important callings in time and eternity are those of father and mother.” (emphasis added)

To be a woman of faith, then, is to be and do everything that makes life rich and abundant—to learn, to grow, to nurture, and to have sacred experiences of her own. The only things she has ever needed to accomplish this work is to be worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost, to make covenants with God, and to pray. Those prayers—in which she calls down the powers of heaven to assist her in the work of building our Heavenly Father’s kingdom—do not require her to hold an office in the priesthood. It does not matter if she is rich or poor, educated or ignorant, strong or weak. The companionship of the Holy Ghost that ultimately follows such prayers and seals her covenants to her is all the power and authority she needs to perform her calling as a mother.

Line of authority template for men

So where does the priesthood fit into this image of a woman of faith? The priesthood is the power behind her prayers and covenants, the sealing power of the Holy Ghost. Through the Holy Ghost, her power and authority are connected back to God Himself. When men are ordained to the offices of the priesthood by other men in the Church, those men place hands upon their heads and ordain them. These new priesthood holders are then given a line of authority that traces their newly given priesthood through their priesthood leaders, through Peter, James, and John, and finally back to Jesus Christ. This priesthood line of authority is crucial, and is what separates us from every other church on the earth.

Line of authority template for women

However, the righteous women of the Church do not need such an ordination because they do not act in the offices connected to those ordinances. Instead, they make covenants with Christ, approach Him in prayer such as they are—with an inherent virtue and goodness that is their power, authority, influence, and destiny. These women of faith promise “to mourn with those that mourn… comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places… even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life.” (Mosiah 18: 9) And it has been my experience that they will be given great power from Almighty God to keep that promise.

While we celebrate the ordination of our men to the holy priesthood order—the ordained hands that crown our fathers, brothers, and sons with the glory of God—we as women should never doubt the reality and glory of our own crowns just because we have had them since our birth. If she is so inclined, a Latter-day Saint woman can then think of her priesthood line of authority in motherhood as tracing through the Holy Ghost, then to Jesus Christ, then to the Father of us all. Because her calling is different, her line of authority in motherhood and womanhood is different, but never diminished.

In a season of my life when I had no access to the priesthood—no father, no home teachers, no callings—it meant everything to me to have the gift of the Holy Ghost attend to my needs and spiritual upbringing. Through His influence, Heavenly Father gave me opportunities to minister to others that permanently changed the way I see everyone, including Him. That experience remains a firm testimony to me of the good my Heavenly Father intends for me to do in this world, and the power He has promised to give me to do it all in His name.

This is not to suggest that women can achieve their fullest glory on their own. In order for women to access the gift of the Holy Ghost, they must be baptized and confirmed through the offices of the priesthood. To then receive the highest ordinances necessary to reach the Celestial kingdom, men and women must grow and advance together. By magnifying their respective callings that rely on the priesthood, men and women obtain eternal life in families—which are the lifeblood of this Church. Healthy homes and covenant families build healthy communities that allow generations to thrive. Men and women both are individually talented and divine because of their noble and godly heritage, but “neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.” Exaltation requires men and women in equality and harmony to work together in building the kingdom of God. Therefore, the image of the silent, passive Mormon woman has no place in the true Church of God.

A Divine Destiny

Throughout my Church experience, I have seen rhetoric that has asserted the sacred role of womanhood to women by way of calling them queens. The Relief Society does, in fact, offer the women of the Church the opportunity to obtain the fullness of their stature as queens in Zion. Apostle M. Russell Ballard has expressed a “deep desire is to clarify how we in the presiding councils of the Church feel about the sisters of this Church… we believe that God’s plan is for you to become queens and to receive the highest blessings any woman can receive in time or eternity.” This message is not new, nor is it some product of the Church trying to be more politically correct due to public censure, as some critics might suggest.

Since the days of Joseph Smith, the Relief Society has been urged to live up to its potential. Joseph Smith himself taught that “if this Society [will] listen to the counsel of the Almighty, through the heads of the Church, they shall have power to command queens in their midst.” (History of the Church, 4:605-606) This respect and confidence in the divinity of woman’s mission and the importance of the Relief Society find their echo in the statement of former President Gordon B. Hinckley more than a century later when he testifies that Relief Society “gives [women] status as queens in their own households.”

And still, the misunderstanding persists in the minds and hearts of women everywhere that somehow this stately role must be one as a figurehead only in the Church—one where we as divine daughters sit beside our husbands as bejeweled bearers of children, to be seen and not heard.

But as President Boyd K. Packer taught in April 2010 General Conference, “Unless we enlist the attention of the mothers and daughters and sisters—who have influence on their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers—we cannot progress. The priesthood will lose great power if the sisters are neglected.”

I take this as a compliment from the Quorum of the Twelve’s senior-most apostle—his all-too-prophetic warning to women of how they see themselves, and how they think the Church sees them. We are, in fact, queens through covenant. While all of God’s power is priesthood, and women do not act in the offices of that priesthood, we have access to power and authority of that priesthood. We have all the scepters, swords, and banners of a queen. With all of God’s children as “our greatest jewels,” we find our worth in Zion. In the latter-day mission of Jesus Christ, in opposing evil and preaching the gospel, we find our swords and banners. In the Holy Ghost and the covenants of Jesus Christ, we have our scepter of power and authority in Zion.

As President Julie B. Beck, our Relief Society leader in this latter day battle, has taught us—we are no ordinary queens. We do not sit upon our thrones playing patty-cake with our children, hardly more than children ourselves. We have a mission, a work to do, a fight to win against evil in the name of God. That fight will take us many places—opportunities for employment, traveling in foreign lands, and educational training of all kinds. These opportunities for women are blessings from God that have never been as prevalent on the earth as they are today. But these blessings become distractions when we seek them against the will of the Lord and His timetable for our individual lives, and the lives of our families. It is the responsibility of each individual sister to council with the Lord and to understand His will for her life.

We would do well to remember that not every sister will bear her own children, not every sister will marry, and not every sister will have opportunities for a career. Just because the Lord has made opportunities for many blessings does not mean every sister will receive them all in this life. This does not, however, excuse her from the responsibility of cultivating that goodness that is inherent in her being, or the benevolence that is her mission at all times.

I did not always understand these truths. I had to struggle to find my place in Church like any other young woman who must try to make a future for herself. I wanted to be a missionary, and then maybe an English teacher. The Lord had other plans for me, and He brought a wonderful young man into my life—ahead of schedule, I might add—that turned my world upside down forever.

Instead of fearing and skirting around being a wife and mother, I’ve come to embrace those opportunities and I’m excited to grow into those roles. I’m grateful for my leaders and their inspired council on how I can magnify these most sacred of all callings. I’m grateful for the Relief Society and all it has taught me about being a woman of faith. In the absence of a covenant family of my own, the best thing I ever did for myself and my testimony was to firmly root myself to the Relief Society. As long as I am there, I will not be led astray from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the one true church of Jesus Christ on the earth today. I know that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restoration, and that Thomas S. Monson is the modern-day prophet that leads the Church in these latter days. I testify of Jesus Christ, of His Atonement and sacrifice that have provided us all with this mortal probation, this time to discover for ourselves what is most important in life, and to exercise our agency in choosing it. I deliver this message in His holy name, which delivers us from every bondage and lifts us where we stand—even Jesus Christ. Amen.