Some of Sarah's thoughts on the 'Mormon Feminist Movement'

Sarah shared this in a note on facebook, and I wanted those of you not on facebook to be able to read it. It was so good!
 
I feel compelled to express my thoughts about the many posts and articles I’ve read in the last few months regarding women holding the priesthood. First of all I feel sadness that some women have had the unfortunate experience of being in a home with a priesthood holder who would manipulate the words of the scriptures and the prophets to exercise unrighteous authority to control spouses and children. It is sad that because of this some think that priesthood power is what gives opportunity to create a circumstance such as this. This kind of abuse takes place across countries and cultures where priesthood is present or not and the power of the priesthood should not be tied to this kind of behavior or tainted by it as it is clearly not a power over others but a power for others. Those that try to manipulate it to seem otherwise will stand accountable before God. The priesthood is a power and responsibility. As a woman I feel that I have access to every priesthood power and blessing but have none of the service responsibilities. I have been given countless other opportunities for service in the church and in the home. I have complete trust that this is the way God set it up to maximize my personal growth and the growth of the wonderful men in my life and in the church. I acknowledge that I have been blessed to have been raised by a father who honored his priesthood and been surrounded by brothers and a husband and other church leaders that have honored their priesthood which has helped me come to the understanding that I have. What I have witnessed is men who serve others at sometimes great inconvenience and sacrifice to themselves so that they can ease the burdens of someone else, weather it be through offering priesthood blessings or helping with a huge variety of temporal and spiritual needs. Many times literally taking the burdens of others on themselves. The priesthood is the power of Jesus Christ and that is who these priesthood holders follow and represent. I think of what He did. Jesus Christ took upon himself the burdens, sins, and sorrows of ALL of Gods children. His entire life was spent in service to others. To us it’s all about Him but to Him it’s all about us. Even when he was hanging on the cross his thoughts were towards others as he asked his apostle to take care of his mother.(John 19:26) When my husband leaves to help someone else and I put kids to bed I’m grateful that we are not both required to leave and I can feel good about my sacrifice of giving support to him although it admittedly increases my own burden but my kids still have a parent to tuck them in and sing them a song and read them a story and he gets to sacrifice his time and energy to help someone else and we are both blessed by the experience because we are experiencing things that make us more like Christ which gives us a better understanding of who He is and helps increase our relationship with Him. And that increased relationship with Him is worth any sacrifices made and the sacrifices are so well compensated for as to not seem like sacrifices at all. The priesthood works so well set up the way it is when it is understood and exercised correctly that it just adds to my complete trust in Heavenly Father and His ways. He is bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:39) That is his work and he is completely efficient at it and His love for All of His children is evident.
One other aspect of the priesthood is the leadership of the Church with Christ as the cornerstone and head of the church and a foundation of prophets and apostles. And again  these positions need to be seen accurately  as the service positions that they are.  The Ephesians 2:20 refers to Christ as the cornerstone and symbolically displays a most accurate picture of things as they really are. Christ is the chief cornerstone. If you take the cornerstone out of the church it will crumble. It literally carries the weight of the church, much like the foundation of apostles and prophets who carry the weight of the church. It is not a pedestal they are placed on. These apostles and prophets of the church have literally given their lives to their service in the church and to the savior and all of God’s children at great personal sacrifice and a sacrifice to their families. I’m so grateful for their sacrifice and the willingness of worthy priesthood holders around the world to follow Christ’s example to sacrifice and serve so that all can come to better know and understand the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Peaches and Cream ;)

I LOVED my spot in the family right next to Nathan. He was so fun, creative, energetic, smart, inventive, spontaneous, and kind. I did fall victim to a few harmless pranks and experiments, like when he had friend over for the night and I woke up with honey in my hair or the time I was wearing rubber soled tennis shoes and he assured me that if I touched the electric fence with  a wet carrot he handed me I would not get shocked and I trusted him so I did it and felt very tricked when I got shocked however, I saw the genuinely surprised look on his face and wasn’t to upset about it. He was very protective of me and I think took only very calculated risks when I was involved. Like driving the go-cart through swallow you whole sized mud holes on our way to get milk from the dairy. I thought Nathan was fascinating, all the things he would make from parts of stuff blew my mind. So cool! The first time I remember singing with him was at a party he threw for all his friends (I think the whole school came) at our Jerome house. I really liked singing with him we sang at church, and Christmas parties all throughout high school. One ward Christmas party we danced a west coast swing that Raymond taught us. It was so fun and I was really glad Nathan didn’t think it was gross to dance with his sister because many brothers would have and I really liked to dance and he was way better than any of the other guys at it. He always treated me really good at school and at home, in fact I was asked more than once if he was my boyfriend. J Our school took a compatibility test for dating and it turned out I was the most compatible girl in the school for Nathan J Although it was still only around 70% compatible, good thing he found the 100% girl in Amy, she’s perfect! He was quite the achiever, he had no problem putting in way more effort than most people at improving his MANY talents. He would drive 2 hrs from Boise to get voice lessons from the best teacher (Marty Mead) I got to benefit from that too and tag along and usually got a Wendy’s baked potato and frosty out of it as well. Yum! He memorized all scripture mastery scriptures plus a few extras that our seminary program challenged us to do to become a master scriptorian. I think there was only 2 that did it the whole time I was in high school (and I was not the other one, but, you know we all have our strengths) I was so impressed and proud to be related. I think people assumed good things about me because of him. I really enjoyed our friendship during high school, group dates, after youth dance talks over ice cream, and watching movies, especially funny ones (he has a really fun sense of humor and a great laugh). I remember him telling me once about feeling really close to Heavenly Father when he prayed and it made me want to feel that closeness with Him as well. I know I’m a better person because of Nathan. When he went to college and on a mission I felt kind of left behind and is really the reason I started thinking about a mission. I wanted to better understand the experiences he was having. I knew he was the best missionary ever. We’ve been geographically  apart for most of the time since but I LOVE getting together still with him and Amy and their fantastic kids. I’m just really thankful to be family so that the miles don’t separate us permanently. Happy Birthday, Brother!

April love...

It was a good title so I'll stick with it.

I guess since I’m from Idaho that makes me a participa’tator’, as well as a repeater of cheesy tator jokes. So I will contribute to this family history, which I think is a great idea. I guess my thoughts of April went this way because of the original idea which was about priesthood. I remember every Testimony meeting at church April would stand up and say she’s thankful that her Dad’s the Bishop. I probably inappropriately teased her about it at the time but I think she was proud that her Dad was a worthy priesthood holder. Looking back I think was very sweet and very touching.

When Julie came into our family she made me feel welcome and comfortable which normally would be perceived as our duty as the in-laws to do that for her. I was and am very impressed by that and it inspired me to make more of an effort to be welcoming to my in-laws when I got married.

I first heard about Amy in letters from siblings while on my mission and was impressed before we ever met in person. She is such a doll! She’s got a great sense of humor which is great because I love to laugh. Unfortunately, I think I’m scarred for life at the memory of watching her drag face first across the beach sand behind our boat. Yikes! Hopefully someday we will be able to launch parasailors right off the back of the boat. Then we can make it up to her.

I think April, Julie, and Amy all fall into the category of supermoms that can and do do anything and everything. When I see moms like that I think that maybe you guys should come and do some of my stuff.:) I am a better person because of these three amazing ladies and am very thankful to have them in my life.

Resneps

Spencer went to work on building the house with Tim on his birthday and got cold and started walking home without telling anyone. When Tim realized he was gone he drove home hoping he would see him on the way. When he got home and asked me if Spencer was here I felt sick to my stomach to realize he was lost. About 10 min. later I called Tim to see if he had found him and he had. Spencer was two houses down from the house we are building, at the Binghams house. They didn’t recognize him so they asked him his name and he said “Spencer” then they asked him his last name and he said “ Resneps”. What?!.. When they told me that I could not figure out what possessed him to say that. Tim figured it out. Resneps is in fact his name backwards and not his last name. Hahaha… It was scary but I am thankful for good neighbors and good laughs as well. And now Spencer knows the difference between his last name and his backwards name. J

New Baby Fun

Colors

I am very perplexed right now. Just wondering why the first girl in this family wasn't assigned pink and the second girl purple. This is the natural order of things! After five girls purple was never assigned until the eighth child who is not even a girl! Does anyone have an explanation for this. Come on, I need answers! And Mom don't call me with the answer, I never get to the phone on time and when I call right back the phone rings ten times and then I get the answering machine. What do you do, Drop the phone and run away the second after you call?