I feel that women truly are equals to men, but that the world (and sometimes the Church) perpetuates attitudes that are not in keeping with the fact that women truly are just as capable as men, maybe differently capable but not unequally so.
I hate to use the word "differently" there. Not because it's not true, but because so often it is used to replace more belittling language.
Anyhow, I came across a truly beautiful idea today while reading one of my favorite blogs. This was in a comment that was responding to a post about how to make sure that our children know they have a Mother in Heaven (among other things) when so often She is not mentioned.
A poster with the tag JC stated this:
"...The other night my son, age 11.5, asked me why girls don’t have the priesthood. I asked him why he thought they didn’t, he said he didn’t know - but it wasn’t fair that boys HAD to go on missions and girls get to choose. I told him that girls do have priesthood that they use in the temples and that parents share the priesthood. We talked about how both parents are expected to be good parents, but moms (mostly) seem to spend more time with small children than Dads. This led nicely into a talk about Heavenly Mother. DS has some interesting thoughts about her. He suggested that maybe she is a stay at heaven parent. Maybe earth stuff is Heavenly Father’s “job,” and She is in charge of preparing people to come here and takes care of them when they get back to heaven. He thinks that is a very important job and that HM is in charge of that because people are going to be sad to leave their families here on earth and will need some really big cuddles when they get to heaven. He also thinks that Her favorite colors might be reds and pinks because HF created a LOT of flowers those colors to show his love for her. Maybe She is in charge of the beautiful things on earth that make us happy, like sunsets, snow, cool animals, and that leaves HF some time to deal with other stuff. (As a side note, I help DH with a lot of the paperwork for his job, so doing a job together isn’t a big deal to him.) These are just his thoughts and I think that they are good ones. He doesn’t feel that She loves us any less, maybe more, because we spend lots more time in heaven than on earth..."What a beautiful idea! To think that it came from an 11 year old astounds me. I like it oh, so much better than the "we don't talk about her to protect her." idea that is so often repeated (almost to the extend of being offensive. Why would a mother need to be protected from her own children?) But this? This idea rings more true for me and brings me more peace of mind.
From the mouths of babes ... and all that jazz.
7 comments:
What an adorable comment. I love the conversations I have with my son. He is always asking me religious stuff. I love it. A lady in my ward once told me that her patriarchal blessing says that she has a lot of the same qualities of Heavenly Mother. I thought that was so cool. It will be so great to see her again and remember her. But not until I'm old. :)
That's a really great way to think of Heavenly Mother. I love that men and women are so different, and do their own thing the best.
Hmmm...I am not sure that I will every make a good Heavenly Mother...I like to work and get out of the house. I wonder how that will go over in the eternities? :)
I liked the post though.
LOL Fluffy, I think you will do AWESOME in the eternities.... who is to say that there is only one way to do anything? I've never heard that Godhood has to be an exact replica of what we have here and now... Who knows, it could be like each individual marriage, each working differently to make sure it all works. :)
I love this boy's thoughts on HM. Wow, what a thinker!
Touche to that little boy!
May
Awesome post! Thanks for sharing these beautiful thoughts.
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