My Testimony of God's Love for Women

My heart is burning and bursting right now. It is 3 AM on a Sunday morning and just last evening (Saturday) I attended the worldwide General Relief Society meeting broadcast for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was an evening full of Sisterhood, peace, love, and spiritual enlightenment as church and Relief Society leaders spoke and shared the messages which the Holy Spirit had impressed upon them to share. I am grateful for their messages, for their testimonies, and for their boldness.

Now it is my turn to be bold, to share my own testimony that Jesus Christ lives; that He is my Savior, and that He loves me.

I cannot count the number of times in my life I have heard church leaders try to impress upon us exactly how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love women. I’ve heard them say it many times, but never with so much force and conviction have I truly seen and felt that love for myself.

A couple weeks ago, I was having a really rough time. As the mother of three small boys ages five and under, I felt—as I often do—utterly overwhelmed with the responsibility of caring for and nurturing my family with the love, patience, energy, and understanding which I felt I should be doing but at which I feared I was failing miserably. After a long day, I was expressing some of my frustration to my husband, who had my six-month-old baby on his lap, facing me. At one point I looked at my baby and he looked back and smiled a winning smile which melted my heart as it usually does. But it was the words my husband spoke next which really arrested that particular moment in my memory.

He said, “Look, dear. Look at your baby. That is the look of true love right there.”

And right then I felt the beginning of a swelling in my soul, which has been growing ever since, and the ever-growing realization that it is true. That my Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ really do love me.

Do I deserve that love? Probably not. But they love me nonetheless, because I need that love.

And this morning I want to pronounce to my Sisters everywhere, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love women. Sure, they love all their Children. But they love Women especially, with a special love, with an extra measure of love that is ours and ours alone.

Why? Because we are the caregivers. We are the mothers. We are the wives. We are the daughters. We are the sisters. And in all these roles, it is women that the children of the Lord turn to when they need to be succored, to be nurtured, to be loved. And were it not for that extra measure of love bestowed upon us by our Creator, we would not have enough love to give to others who need it.

 

Oftentimes people in the world who wish to challenge the Church and question the role of women within the organization like to point out the fact that our church does not allow women to hold the Priesthood nor perform Priesthood ordinances. Instead, the Priesthood is reserved only for the faithful men in the Church. The world looks upon this fact and believes that women are somehow being cheated, that we are being oppressed. This is false.

In fact, I have come to believe that we as women have been given our own parallel “priesthood” within the Church and—by extension—in the world. It is different from, but no less equal to, that Priesthood Power granted to the Lord’s faithful male follwers. It is that same love of which I wrote before. Just as Christ laid his hands upon His Apostles’ heads in ancient times to confer upon them the Preisthood and Power of God on Earth—which was restored to Joseph Smith in the Latter-Days and passed down by the laying on of hands to this day—so has Christ placed His hands upon the hearts of the women of the Church and conferred upon us the Love of Christ. In other words, Charity is our priesthood. And we ought to be fulfilling our duties in this area with the same resolve and dilligence which we expect from the Brethren in fulfilling their Priesthood duties.

Within a home, a man may be the head, but the woman is the heart. Men are the heads of the Church under the authority and direction of the Savior. But without women—without the Sisters—His Love could not be poured out so abundantly as it is. It is through the women of the Church that Charity prevails. It is the Love of Christ which inspires and empowers us to serve and bless the rest of the world with that Love. It is our calling. It is our sacred trust.

I humbly and fervently pray, in the name of my Savior and Brother Jesus Christ, that I may fulfill that Calling throughout the rest of my life with the same resolve which I feel right now.

Amen.

Testimony #1

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Twice a year, on the first weekend of April and the first weekend of October, the entire worldwide membership "gathers," in person as well as through the use of modern media, to hear the words of Church leaders and to receive revelation from them.

This time, I feel impressed to share a realization that I had while listening to this April's General Conference of the Church. But first, a bit of background information.

The worldwide leadership of the Church consists of twelve Apostles, led by a Presidency consisting of the Prophet, and two Counselors (think Moses, Aaron, and Caleb). So, fifteen men in total. When a Prophet dies, all the Apostles assemble together and pray to receive unanimous revelation to sustain the new Prophet. Since the beginning of the Church in the Latter Days, the next Prophet has always been the Apostle of highest seniority-- he who has been in the Apostleship the longest.

When a new Prophet is called, or when an Apostle dies, a vacancy appears in the Quorum of Apostles that must be filled. When a new Apostle is being called, all the current Apostles assemble and while the exact process is unknown to me, in the end they all come to an agreement (the vote must be unanimous) as to who should be called to fill the vacancy.

I can't imagine this to be an easy process. With so many worthy men in the Church to choose from, how could one possibly be selected-- and unanimously at that-- without revelation from God?

And here's the realization I had today. While listening to this April's Conference, it was pointed out how our current Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, was called to be an Apostle at the very young age of thirty-six! He had three children at the time, ranging in ages from four to twelve. Historically, very few Apostles (save in the very beginning of the Church when there were far fewer members) have been called that young.

Knowing what I know about the importance of Family in the Church, and how much all the Church leaders obviously value the Family and cherish their own families, I just can't imagine that the Apostles at the time when President Monson was called to the Apostleship, would have decided on their own to call him to such a responsibility-laden calling. Surely they knew, when they called him, that he was still raising his children; that by calling him at such a young age, they were asking him to sacrifice much of the time that he could otherwise have spent playing with his children, supporting them in their activities, and watching them grow. And cherishing their own children as much as I'm sure they did, I can hardly imagine that any of those Apostles found it emotionally or psychologically comfortable to put such a burden on such a young father.

But, the Lord sees fit to call whom He will. And all those Apostles were enough in tune with the Holy Spirit to know that, while perhaps they did not understand the reason to call Thomas S. Monson to the Apostleship, God could see much farther ahead than they could and He had His own plans for this man.

What if those Apostles had not listened? What if they had instead listened to their own heads, and reasoned among themselves, "Well, Brother Monson is surely a worthy man; but he's so young, and his family is young; would it not be better to wait several years, for another vacancy in the Quorum?" But, if they had followed this sort of counsel, it is highly likely that Thomas S. Monson would not be our Prophet today.

The Lord sees fit to call whom He will. And I do not question the decisions of the Apostles and Prophet who lead this Church, because I know that they are ever seeking-- and receiving-- their revelation straight from Heaven.

Christ truly does lead His Church in the Latter Days. And that is my personal Testimony today.