Every six months Later-day Saints have a worldwide General Conference in which we get direction and inspiration from our church leaders. This year Julie B. Beck, the president of the Relief Society, gave a talk that made my little blogger heart rejoice. She talked about how her
“…presidency has prayed, fasted, pondered, and counseled with prophets, seers, and revelators to learn what God would have us do to help His daughters be strong in the face of “the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth.” An answer has come that the sisters of the Church should know and learn from the history of Relief Society. Understanding the history of Relief Society strengthens the foundational identity and worth of faithful women.”
How exciting to me that the answer they got from the Lord about how to fortify women was to learn their history! I know that Sister Beck was talking specifically about the history of the Relief Society but I couldn’t help but extrapolate her talk to include all the history we have about women’s involvement in the gospel and with Jesus Christ… all the women in the scriptures.
Her talk reminded me of why I am writing this blog and why I feel that understanding the history of the women of the scriptures is so valuable. I think she outlined the reasons well, she said:
“We study our history to learn who we are. There is a worldwide hunger among good women to know their identity, value, and importance. …We study our history to learn what we are to do. Through our history we learn how to prepare for the blessings of eternal life. …We study our history because it unites faithful women. ..We study our history because it helps us change. Ultimately, the value of history is not so much in its dates, times, and places. It is valuable because it teaches us the principles, purposes, and patterns we are to follow, it helps us know who we are and what we are to do, and it unites us in strengthening the homes of Zion and building the kingdom of God on the earth.”
You can go here to read her full talk entitled “Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and work of Relief Society”.
I just want to add my testimony to Julie Beck’s and say that there is such power in knowing our history. It reminds us that God is no respecter of persons and that throughout history he has always poured out his spirit upon his righteous daughters. The more I learn about them the more I see that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Women have such an incredible role to play here on the earth and it is so exciting for me to see the power and the strength He is pouring out upon his daughters. What a wonderful time to be a righteous woman and what great examples we have to follow!
Also I just wanted to share again the re-enactment of the first Relief Society that I wrote last year for our ward to perform. It was an incredible experience for our ward and I just wanted to let some of my new readers know about it. You are welcome to use this script for your own use and I hope that if you do you will send me pictures about how it went… please, pretty please.
I totally agree with you! I love Julie Becks talk about that.
I am excited about this too.
When I heard her talk I thought of you! 🙂
You wrote about my favorite parts of the talk! My ultimate favorite line was "There is a worldwide hunger among good women to know their identity, value, and importance." I felt acknowledged. Often we talk about the "fullness" of the gospel and that it's those without the gospel, or who aren't on the right track who are hungering for greater understanding of their purpose. I'm sure they are, and the gospel will tell them who they are, why they're here, and where they're going. But I've often wished for a "fuller" "fulness of the gospel" with greater detail about my role and destiny as a woman. We know that eventually we will have that "fuller fullness" and this Relief Society history will be a part of that greater fullness for all of God's daughters. Yay! I wonder how comprehensive it will be. I'd love to have the early Mormon midwives stories included. The Jospeh Smith Papers is volumes long and about only one prophet. In order to tell every Relief Society story, it would take a lot of time and space, but I'd love to have a comprehensive "Relief Society Papers". I'm excited to read this upcoming history! Thanks for your great posts, resources, and ideas. Yesterday, my husband said he'd do the Women in the Scriptures challenge with me. We're starting with the Old Testament.
I'm really interested to see the book Sister Beck mentioned in her talk. There are quite a few things in the history of women in the church that could be controversial. I wonder how they'll handle those things… And it makes me wonder how we should handle those things in our book as well… hmm…
Busca, I was wondering about how they are going to handle the controversial things. I hope they don't shy away from them, I think they are important things for women to talk about and understand. I've come to find that if I ever have a problem with something it is usually because I don't know enough about it yet. I have faith that God has answers for everything, even if I don't understand it right away. I am so excited for this next year!
i loved sister beck's talk, and was honored to actually interpret it into Papiamento. i can't wait for that book she was saying is being compiled of the history of the relief society that will be available next year for our use! sister beck rocks!
Querida irmã Heather…desde que conheci o seu blog,tenho me inspirado nas suas experiências e pensamentos.
Você é maravilhosa!
Mesmo em países distantes e falando idiomas diferentes,somos filhas de um Deus justo e amoroso. Fazemos parte de algo espiritualmente grande,somos mulheres especiais,nossa força nasce do conhecimento profundo desta obra…sei que temos um papel muito importante neste plano.
Obrigada por me lembrar disso…
Coloquei no meu blog http://www.sociedadedesocorrovirtual.blogspot.com A encenação da 1ª reunião da sociedade socorro que você fez. Obrigada por compartilhar…as irmãs que seguem meu blog adoraram,todas nós vimos a qualidade do trabalho que foi feito. Venha me visitar e diga-me o que achou da postagem.
Beijos com grande carinho,
Kakau