REL 200 - The Eternal Family

The Divine Roles and Responsibilities of Women

Readings:

"Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.

The Family: A Proclamation to the World
 .

2 Timothy 1:5 Alma 57:21
2 Timothy 3:14-15 Doctrine and Covenants 25:1-3, 10, 13-16
Alma 56:47-48
 
Pres. Russell M. Nelson - Sisters’ Participation in the Gathering of Israel
Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley - Women of the Church
Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf - The Influence of Righteous Women
Pres. M. Russell BallardWomen of Righteousness
 
Sister Patricia T. Holland"One Thing Needful": Becoming Women of Greater Faith in Christ  <<<
 
Dr. Marcus H. Martins - The Doctrine of the Priesthood and Gender Issues (2016)
  
Pres. Russell M. Nelson Women and Priesthood Authority
Pres. M. Russell Ballard

Women’s Roles at Home and in Professions

Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley  #1, 2, 3


Caution in the Workplace

Counsel for Working Mothers - Part A

Counsel for Working Mothers - Part B
 
Elder Neal A. Maxwell Women's Great Role
The Prophet Joseph Smith Prophetic Promises to Faithful Women
 
Questions for Review

Pres. Russell M. Nelson
Women and Priesthood Authority
Conference Report, October 2019

Now, may I clarify several additional points with respect to women and priesthood. When you are set apart to serve in a calling under the direction of one who holds priesthood keys—such as your bishop or stake president—you are given priesthood authority to function in that calling.

Similarly, in the holy temple you are authorized to perform and officiate in priesthood ordinances every time you attend. Your temple endowment prepares you to do so.

If you are endowed but not currently married to a man who bears the priesthood and someone says to you, “I’m sorry you don’t have the priesthood in your home,” please understand that that statement is incorrect. You may not have a priesthood bearer in your home, but you have received and made sacred covenants with God in His temple. From those covenants flows an endowment of His priesthood power upon you. And remember, if your husband should die, you would preside in your home.

As a righteous, endowed Latter-day Saint woman, you speak and teach with power and authority from God. Whether by exhortation or conversation, we need your voice teaching the doctrine of Christ. We need your input in family, ward, and stake councils. Your participation is essential and never ornamental!

My dear sisters, your power will increase as you serve others. Your prayers, fasting, time in the scriptures, service in the temple, and family history work will open the heavens to you.

I entreat you to study prayerfully all the truths you can find about priesthood power. You might begin with Doctrine and Covenants sections 84 and 107. Those sections will lead you to other passages. The scriptures and teachings by modern prophets, seers, and revelators are filled with these truths. As your understanding increases and as you exercise faith in the Lord and His priesthood power, your ability to draw upon this spiritual treasure that the Lord has made available will increase. As you do so, you will find yourselves better able to help create eternal families that are united, sealed in the temple of the Lord, and full of love for our Heavenly Father and for Jesus Christ.

Elder M. Russell Ballard
Women’s Roles at Home and in Professions
BYU Women’s Conference - May 1, 2015
Once you know the Lord's will, you can then move forward in faith to fulfill your individual purpose. One sister may be inspired to continue her education and attend medical school, allowing her to have significant impact on her patients and to advance medical research. For another sister, inspiration may lead her to forego a scholarship to a prestigious institution and instead begin a family much earlier than has become common in this generation, allowing her to make a significant and eternal impact on her children now.

Is it possible for two similarly faithful women to receive such different responses to the same basic questions? Absolutely! What’s right for one woman may not be right for another. That’s why it is so important that we should not question each other’s choices or the inspiration behind them. And we should refrain from asking hurtful and unsupportive questions like “Why are you going on a mission?” or “Why aren’t you on a mission?” or “Why aren’t you married?” or “Why don’t you have children?” We can all be kinder and more thoughtful of the situations in which our sisters throughout the world find themselves as they seek to follow the will of our Heavenly Father in their individual lives.

Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley #1
Caution in the Workplace

Conference Report, October 1998

You women who are single, and some of you who are married, who are out in the workplace, may I give you a word of caution. You work alongside men. More and more, there are invitations to go to lunch, ostensibly to talk about business. You travel together. You stay in the same hotel.  You work together.  Perhaps you cannot avoid some of this, but you can avoid getting into compromising situations.

Do your job, but keep your distance. Don’t become a factor in the breakup of another woman's home. You are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You know what is expected of you. Stay away from that which is tempting. Avoid evil its very appearance.


Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley #2
Counsel for Working Mothers
- Part A
Conference Report, October 1998

I think the nurture and upbringing of children is more than a part-time responsibility. I recognize that some women must work, but I fear that there are far too many who do so only to get the means for a little more luxury and a few fancier toys.  If you must work, you have an increased load to bear. You cannot afford to neglect your children.  They need your supervision in studying, in working inside and outside the home, in the nurturing that only you can adequately give the love, the blessing, the encouragement, and the closeness of a mother.  Families are being torn asunder everywhere. Family relationships are strained as women try to keep up with the rigors of two full-time jobs.


Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley #3
Counsel for Working Mothers - Part B
Conference Report, October 1983

To you women who find it necessary to work when you would rather be at home, may I speak briefly. ... Some of you have been abandoned and are divorced, with children to care for. Some of you are widows with dependent families. I honor you and respect you for your integrity and spirit of self-reliance. I pray that the Lord will bless you with strength and great capacity, for you need both. You have the responsibilities of both breadwinner and homemaker. I know that it is difficult. I know that it is discouraging. I pray that the Lord will bless you with a special wisdom and the remarkable talent needed to provide your children with time and companionship and love and with that special direction which only a mother can give. I pray also that he will bless you with help, unstintingly given, from family, friends, and the Church, which will lift some of the burden from your shoulders and help you in your times of extremity.

We sense, at least in some small degree, the loneliness you must occasionally feel and the frustrations you must experience as you try to cope with problems that sometimes seem beyond your capacity to handle. Sometimes you need food for your tables, and we trust that bishops will be there to supply food and other goods and services under the great program which the Lord has provided in his Church. But we know that more often your greater need is for understanding and appreciation and companionship. We shall try a little harder to cultivate these virtues, and I urge you sisters who are in a position to do so to reach out with greater concern to those who find themselves in these less fortunate circumstances.

Now to others who work when it is not necessary and who, while doing so, leave children to the care of those who often are only poor substitutes, I offer a word of caution. Do not follow a practice which will bring you later regret. If the purpose of your daily employment is simply to get money for a boat or a fancy automobile or some other desirable but unnecessary thing, and in the process you lose the companionship of your children and the opportunity to rear them, you may find that you have lost the substance while grasping at the shadow.


Elder Neal A. Maxwell
Women's Great Role
Conference Report, April 1978

We know so little … about the reasons for the division of duties between womanhood and manhood as well as between motherhood and priesthood.

These were divinely determined in another time and another place. We are accustomed to focusing on the men of God because theirs is the priesthood and leadership line.

But paralleling that authority line is a stream of righteous influence reflecting the remarkable women of God who have existed in all ages and dispensations, including our own. Greatness is not measured by coverage in column inches, either in newspapers or in the scriptures. The story of the women of God, therefore, is, for now, an untold drama within a drama.


The Prophet Joseph Smith
Prophetic Promises to Faithful Women
Teachings of Presidents of the Church--Joseph Smith, p.454

If you live up to these principles, how great and glorious will be your reward in the celestial kingdom!

If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates.


Questions for Review

1) The Prophet Joseph Smith told the sisters: "If you live up to your privileges, ...................................................." (Prophet Joseph Smith - also quoted in Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf's The Influence of Righteous Women)

2) What mandate is placed on righteous women who made convenants with the Lord? (Elder M. Russell Ballard - Women of Righteousness)


3) What happens when a woman stands for truth and righteousness?
(Elder M. Russell Ballard - Women of Righteousness)

4) What impact does a woman of God have on others? (Elder M. Russell Ballard - Women of Righteousness)

5) What would be a good slogan for relationships in the workplace? (President Gordon B. Hinckley #1)

Be prepared to present your understanding about this topic to your classmates, and see if you have additional questions to ask me.  I'll be glad to answer them.

This web page was published only as a support for classroom discussion.
For more information, contact Dr. Marcus Martins at: martinsm@byuh.edu