What Kind of Women Do We Need?

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday morning session of the October 2000 conference.

In less than two months our daughter will graduate (debt free) with a Masters degree in Creative Writing. It's been a delight to have her live with us for the past four years. We regularly discuss books and writing and such. Learning from her as she learns has been tremendous fun. She also teaches a section of "Freshman English" each semester, so we hear about the current state of students too.

A phenomenon in recent years has been the rise of the "strong woman" protagonist in stories, books and films. This strong woman doesn't need a man to rescue her, she is doing the rescuing, battling males with aplomb and leading armies to victory, etc., etc. 

Our daughter grew up with four brothers so she is not entirely drawn in by the myth of the strong woman. She understands that a woman's strength is more in the emotional and spiritual realms rather than the physical. (Although I will say that she and I regularly move furniture and heavy boxes, open jars and doors, and fix things around the house in the absence of any males.)

In this session of conference Sister Margaret D. Nadauld, Young Women General President, spoke of The Joy of Womanhood. She said so many profound things! The best of all was this:

Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.

 

Our daughter, who I call Noble on my blogs, served in the USAF for four years, and has now gone to college for seven. She stills lives up to her name, Noble, because she is the kind of woman Sister Nadauld describes. We need more like her!

Another Parental Payday

Noble has followed the counsel of the prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley, to seek learning! She served in the Air Force, as a Korean Linguist; now she has an Associates of Arts in English. And she's transferring to a university in Minnesota to pursue a Bachelors in Asian Studies and Languages with a Korean emphasis! Her blue stole indicates that she is a Veteran. Way to go Noble!!!

Oops, I missed a day

Count Your Blessings - Day Four

My sweetheart daughter, Noble, assisted me with more leaf raking yesterday. I'm so thankful for her youthful strength and vigor. Together we got loads more done.

From the wisdom of Solomon:

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.    (Proverbs 31:10)

Count Your Blessings - Day Five

Have I ever said how much I love bread? Oh, how grateful I am for the staff of physical life. I'm thankful my mother and her mother made bread and left recipes and instructions. I LOVE bread.

I'm also extremely grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, who declared:

I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger;    (John:6:35)

Ten Questions for Ten Things of Thankful

Kristi, over at Thankful Me, invited others to answer these questions in a post. For once these are questions I can answer: 

1.  What small act of service have you received that has meant a lot to you?  
At a time of marital crisis a friend sent me a gorgeous floral arrangement. She knew I couldn't announce the crisis in church so was having to face it alone. When it arrived I bawled over her thoughtfulness and generosity.

2.  What was your favorite meal when you were a child?
My mother's tacos and enchiladas. She had learned how to cook authentic Mexican from the ladies in the Spanish Branch where she attended because of my dad's assignment early in their marriage.

3.  Do you enjoy camping?  
Yes. I enjoy the quiet, the fresh air, the challenge of "playing pioneer" and the stars overhead at night.

4.  Have you moved (changed houses) more as an adult, or as a child?  
I never moved as a child, except to change bedrooms. As an adult I've moved twenty-three times. I've become a gypsy. Actually, I moved some as a young adult, as a missionary, and then I married a Marine and have moved following him around. I'm so used to it that every three or so years I get an itch to move again. I like the challenge of a new place.

5.  Where would you like to retire, and why?  
Somewhere close to children and grandchildren, hopefully somewhere south of where I am now so the winters would be milder. But maybe we'll stay here and just be snowbirds travelling south for the winter. We're about ten years from retirement.

6.  If you had a free day next week, how would you spend it?
If I had a WHOLE day free I'd use it to re-organize my Family History paperwork. I need to, but just can't quite get to it.

 7.  If you could suddenly develop a new talent or skill, what would it be? 
In 2008 I enjoyed four months of violin lessons. I regret that I couldn't continue because I thoroughly enjoyed it and wish I'd had the opportunity when I was young to develop that talent.

8.  Do you know where your grandparents and/or great-grandparents were born?
Grandpa Joe was born in Dundee, Scotland, his wife Grandma Fern was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Grandpa Hansen was born in Kvitver, Norway, Nana Hansen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Joe's parents were born in Scotland, Fern's parents were born in England and Salt Lake City; Grandpa Hansen's parent were born in Norway, Nana's parents were born in Denmark.

9.  What is one trait that describes you?
Knowledgeable. My children think I'm an encyclopedia; the people at church believe I know everything (they've never met anyone like me); and a dear friend informed me that one of my spiritual gifts is the gift of knowledge, I never knew that, I thought everyone who studied or read knew what I know. I'm not bragging, sometimes it feels like a curse.


10.  What is one of your family traditions?
Using brown paper bags for "wrapping" presents. That got started when our first two children were two and one. We went to a friends home for Christmas Eve dinner and I expected to be home in time to wrap presents. Wrong! We enjoyed ourselves so much that we didn't get home until almost midnight. I stuffed the presents in brown grocery sacks, stapled them shut and wrote names on the bags. Noble and Lt. Lehi enjoyed the bags so much that I never worried about wrapping things again. They played with their presents, putting them in and out of the bags all day. I use wrapping paper for gifts for other's because they don't follow our tradition, but I don't use much wrapping paper for our family gifts. A couple years ago I began making reusable gift bags for our Christmas presents and that has been a fun new tradition, based on the older one.

Truth and Consequences

Truth will stand, eternal and unchanging. As I read bloggers and comments all over the internet spout opinions about my religion I remember Galileo. He was arrested, tried and convicted of heresy because he taught that the sun is the center of the solar system, not the earth. He was not the first to teach this truth, and of course he was not the last, but in his day the truths he espoused were not accepted. The truth did not change because of this non-acceptance, it stood the test of time and with the proper instruments to view to solar system the truth is now universally accepted.

The truth that members of The Church of Jesus Christ is Latter-day Saints are in fact, word and deed Christians followers of Jesus Christ, is not universally accepted. But that doesn't change the truth and someday with the "proper instruments" to view the beliefs and practices of the church it will be an accepted truth.

I've always wondered why seekers of facts or truth don't go directly to the source. It would be like a person wanting to know about Subaru automobiles going to the Ford dealer. Would you get the straight scoop? Would anyone wanting to know about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology go to University of Nevada, Las Vegas for information. If I want to know about the Baptists I sure wouldn't go to the Lutherans.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not lie about it's theology, practices or customs. We do not brainwash individuals or force anyone to do anything against their will. All are welcome to attend our meetings and speak with members and missionaries. Look around the walls of our buildings and listen to the hymns we sing, the prayers over the Sacrament and then tell me that you believe we are not followers of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

One commenter said that the Book of Mormon was simply the rantings of a deranged mind (wonder where he heard that) and I wondered if he/she had ever read the book.

I do know that human beings are generally afraid of what they don't know and that fear tends to show itself as dislike. I can tell you about that from my own experience. As I was preparing to serve a mission I so hoped I would not get called to an Asian mission. I didn't like the food or the music or costumes or the strangeness of it all. I hadn't been introduced to the Asian cultures and found them to be odd at first glance. I wasn't sent there, I went to the deep South and learned to love the people of the Bible Belt, along with speaking Southern. After my mission I had experiences that opened my eyes a little bit and I could see that the Orient had wonderful things to offer. But it wasn't until many years later when our daughter Noble introduced me to all things Korean that I let go of my prejudices and opened my heart to learn of a people and culture rather different from mine.

Followers of Jesus Christ in other churches saying that Mormons aren't Christian are like me saying that Asians aren't human beings because they have customs and habits that are different than mine. We don't have to have the same customs, habits and tastes to value and appreciate each other as human beings; nor do we have to be the same in beliefs and customs to value and appreciate each other as followers of Jesus Christ. We have more in common than we are different. I can learn from you and you can learn from me. We can help each other and our communities if we unite in our commonalities and strengths rather than emphasizing our differences.

A Day of Miracles

Not all miracles have to do with healing the sick, and such. I don't ever take for granted the miracles of technology that I use everyday. Our daughter Noble is in Korea and through the miracle of Skype we can talk to her over a video connection in real time! It is incredible. Saturday night (here) we Skyped and she shared pictures of her field trip to Kyeongbuk Palace in Seoul the day before (there). This time difference thing is amazing too, I call her Future Girl because she is living 14 hours ahead of us.

I don't understand how it all works, and I don't have to. I'm just grateful everyday for all the wonders and miracles of technology we enjoy.