Women and the Priesthood

My heart is overwhelmed with gratitude for the sisters who faithfully serve as Ordinance Workers in the Temples.  I know that there has been several discussions on how some feel it unfair that women in our church can not hold the Priesthood.  Truth be told, there is always going to be multiple opinions and thoughts on everything.  I'm not here to convince anybody of anything.  The only way we can receive revelation of truth is through the Holy Ghost.  I am simply here to bear testimony of something I know to be true.

President Joseph Fielding Smith, then President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said in a talk to the sisters, “A sister may have authority given to her to do certain things in the Church that are binding and absolutely necessary for our salvation. Such is the work that our sisters do in the House of the Lord. You sisters who labor in the House of the Lord can lay your hands upon your sisters with divine authority because the Lord recognizes positions which you occupy."

I could go on about many different ways women participate in the Priesthood, but I really just want to focus on the privilege we have to perform those that are "binding and absolutely necessary."  Because of the faithful sisters who serve as Ordinance Workers, we all have the opportunity in helping the Lord in bringing His children Home. These sisters are literally opening the gates to Eternal Life for our sisters who didn't get the opportunity to fulfill that covenant here on earth.  

Our Father in Heaven is a just God.  In "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" we learn that "fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."  I don't know if Eve was literally made from Adam's rib, but I do know the symbolism is true.  That the rib was used because it symbolizes equality.  Side by side we should walk as male and female.   Not once did our Father in Heaven say He loved Adam more than Eve.  He never once said He would give more power and authority to Adam.  He never once said because you are male you will have dominion over Eve.  No sir.  He gave both Adam and Eve power.  He loved them both.  He commanded them to live as equal partners.  He loves His sons and daughters.  He has specific and necessary work for each one of us.  Just as when it comes to creating life.  Sure, the woman physically carries and gives birth to the child, but without man it is incomplete, not possible.  Both male and female are necessary to create life itself.  So it is with the Priesthood.  We may carry the Priesthood differently.  We may serve in different capacities, but both male and female are needed in completing Heavenly Fathers work here on the earth and in the life to come.  

Quiet Confidence

“When you begin to catch even a glimpse of how your Heavenly Father sees you and what He is counting on you to do for Him, your life will never be the same,” said President Nelson.

Confidence.  We all feel like we don't have a lot of that in us at some point in our lives, if not, most of the time we feel like we are lacking in the confidence department.  So how do we find confidence?  How do we build that confidence in ourselves?  Obviously when we hear kind compliments from others about ourselves it gives us boosts of confidence, but how do we find that lasting confidence- That quiet confidence that will sustain us even on the days where we feel deflated, defeated or just not at the top of our game. True and sustaining confidence, that quiet confidence we all seek after comes from beginning to understand who we really are.  It comes from really knowing we have a Father in Heaven who really does love us.  He's really there.  Just really take that in.  

HE 

IS 

REALLY

THERE.

Maybe you're sitting there thinking this is all just a bunch of nonsense.  Maybe you're still thinking, well it's really not that simple.  I can sit here and say I am a child of God all I want, but that still doesn't change the fact that the boy in my high school gym class still wont give me the time of day.  That doesn't change the fact that the popular girls at school look at me like I'm a nobody.  It doesn't change the fact that I didn't get that job promotion that I worked so hard to get, and somebody else got it instead, and now I feel like I'm not as good as them.  I still feel like a hot mess at the end of the day after cleaning, cooking and taking care of my little children.  Having confidence is more than just knowing I am a child of God you might be thinking.

So here's the question do you REALLY know that you ARE  a child of a Father in Heaven?  Because I'm telling you right here and right now; if you REALLY KNOW that and build your foundation on that, confidence will come.  That sustainable confidence that we all seek after.  It'll come.  When we come to a point where we can ask Him how He feels about us, and when we receive that answer...oh my...that confidence will come.  I'm not saying all your doubts about yourself and your abilities will cease to exist, but the way you view them will.  When you feel your Father confirm to you that you will never, could never be of less worth to Him, no matter what, I'm telling you...it changes everything.  His love changes e v e r y t h i n g.  You're life really will never be the same when you allow the Spirit to testify to you personally that you have a Heavenly Father who loves you.

Would we Recognize Him

What if you were standing looking at your life and realized you had everything you had ever dreamed of having?  Whatever that might be; you had it all.  Then you turned to see a man.  A man you did not recognize, but he asked you to give up everything you had and follow him, because he had something better planned for you.  You'd probably think, "excuse me kind sir, but I have everything I've ever wanted.  What possibly could you give me that I don't already have?  Especially seeing that I don't even know you."  You'd probably think he was a bit strange.  I know I would think that to be a strange thing if a stranger came up and said that to me.  But what if...

what if that man was Christ Himself?

What if it were Christ standing nearby asking you to follow Him, and you just simply did not recognize Him?  You didn't recognize Him, because you didn't know Him.  Now, He doesn't always necessarily ask us to give up everything we have, because He does want us to be happy.  He blesses us with everything good in our lives because He loves us, and He wants us to have JOY!  However, sometimes His plans and His path for us are different from what we anticipated or thought them out to be.  Are we going to be in a place where we can always recognize Him when He speaks to us?  Whether He is warning us, guiding us, comforting us, prompting us, LOVING us, are we going to recognize His gentle voice and embrace when we are near it?  Because if we do, if we do know Him our life changes to that of living a natural mans life to that of a more spiritual life walking beside Him through this mortal life.  We will be in the world but not of the world.  We will be walking through life with divine help from our Father who knows what our needs are and fulfilling those needs, both spiritual and temporal, and my friends, we are indeed, spiritual beings living with the natural man.  We need to seek Him and know Him so we can walk with Him through this mortal life and be able to come off conqueror.

Confidently bringing others to Him

"The Lord needs men and women who can talk with confidence about what they believe." Sheri Dew

I am starting to realize our testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not meant to be kept bottled up inside of us.  The church wouldn't send millions of men and women out on missions to preach the Gospel if that were the case, now would they?  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is real.  Our Father in Heaven is real.  Our Savior is real.  Their existence is not superficial.  It's not just hopeful thoughts and imaginations of our souls to have a greater and more powerful God that stands above us all.  HE LIVES.  He is our magnificent and most gentle Father in Heaven who watches over all His children and has provided a Savior for us that we may always be worthy to stand in His presence and stay in constant communication with Him.  Peace is found IN Him.

Satan would want us to stay quiet.  He would want us to keep it bottled up.  He knows that once we find the TRUTH we have the power to spread the Light of Christ to more and more of our Father's children.  And that, well that TERRIFIES him.  I can just see him begin to pace back and forth quickly trying to muster up a masterful plan to not only break us down and try to cause us to lose our testimony, but also to scare us into not spreading our knowledge to others.  We cant let him win.

"Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;" (Doctrine and Covenants 4:3)

We've heard it many times before, but we really don't have to be set apart and called as an official "missionary" for the church to be a missionary for our Father in Heaven.  It's not always the ones who share their testimony vocally by which others come to know their Father in Heaven either.  It can be, but not always.  Sometimes it's simply by us just being our self and loving those around us.  What I am saying is however we choose to show we know who we are and Whose we are is how He intended it to be.  We were designed perfectly by a perfect Father in Heaven.  He knows our strengths and our weaknesses, and if we let Him, and if we listen and consistently try to do His will He will use us as His instruments to lead others to Him.