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.

I Write the Songs . . . and Movies :)

I'll start with memories of Darrin. I was barely thirteen when Angela and Darrin got married. Even though I was still pretty young (and immature) when I first knew him, I never felt like he treated me differently than an adult. I appreciated that. Those early teens are weird years when you want independence and respect, but are also fairly childish still. There was one thing that I immediately loved about Darrin: he was a Star Wars fanatic. It didn't take much time to realize that he was an overall movie fanatic, really. I think he missed his calling in the film industry. :) I'm no longer surprised, but continuously amazed about how much he knows about movies - who makes them, various techniques and technologies. I find it impressive when people delve so deeply into things; I don't have that kind of passion for anything that pushes me to learn on a deep level. He's also always struck me as a humble, non-judgmental guy, just taking people as they are. Those are great qualities.

I'll always think of Raymond whenever I hear the song, "I Write the Songs". One of my first memories of him is playing and singing that song. I always felt really special because I shared my birthday with him. I loved it when he called me his birthday present when introducing me to people. I idolized him from the beginning. I loved it when I went to college and I got to be his student and be with him in the dance department. I got to know him a lot better, and wasn't disappointed to find him less than I thought he was. I appreciate his integrity. I never got any special treatment because I was his sister (not from him, anyway). The lowest grade I ever got in my dance classes was from him, but I got what I earned. One semester when he was directing DancEnsemble, I auditioned and he could have put me in the company but I didn't really deserve it. I honestly didn't resent that at all. I was sad not to have the opportunity to be in the company while he was director, but I could see that I wasn't good enough yet and I was glad that he didn't give me something I hadn't earned. I was, and am so proud that he's my brother.

So grateful for all of the "August kids". :)

August heroes

Note: This was actually submitted last year, but for purposes of organization I saved it to post this year.

My first memory of Rachael is really as a twelve-year-old, and now I'm old enough to have my own twelve-year-old (wow!)  But Rachael has always been a sweetheart and ready with love and compassion.  She is quick to laugh at everyone's jokes, even when they are not very funny (mine:). Her undying support makes me feel like I can do no wrong.  Yet as soft- and big-hearted as she is, she has great reserves of strength and power.  I love hearing about her birthing stories and how she uses them as a reference for accomplishing hard things.  I love going running with her and can't wait to cheer for her marathon!  Though I started out knowing her as a young girl, she has become quite an awe-inspiring woman.  Happy Birthday this month, Rachael!

And I've only been in the family three days longer than Darrin.  He's felt like a peer and a friend from day one.  I admire his diligence and kindness, and was really touched by his testimony at this last reunion of prayer and the Atonement.  But my favorite memories are watching he and Angela cutting a rug with their swing dancing!  Most girls can only dream of a husband who will take them dancing (even me, and I married a dancer! :)  Happy Birthday Darrin!  You're awesome!

--Julie

Mother, I Love You

My very first memory of Mom is of being disciplined, or rather post-disciplining. I have no recollection of what I'd gotten in trouble for or what punishment had been meted out, but I clearly recall Mom giving me a big, long hug afterward and telling me she loved me. In that moment I understood and felt profoundly that she would always love me no matter what choices I made. It hasn't been until much later in life that I've understood what a profound impact that kind of understanding can have in a child's life.
She has no recollection of negative interactions when I was a teenager (bless her memory!), but I know we had our scuffles. Mom helped me get over shirking and complaining about work by making me wash the dishes by myself every day (by hand) for an entire year. April can back me up on that. :) My poor hands! It was a hard-learned lesson, but it did me good. I think after that I was mostly a cheerful cleaner, if not completely proactive. hahaha
As many of you know, the move to Preston was very difficult for me. I had trouble getting and keeping friends basically the entire time. I got much closer to my family as a result, but particularly Mom. Now that I am a Mom I can see how painful it must have been for Mom to see me struggling so much. The entire first year we lived there I think I came home from school crying most days. Mom kept assuring me that I was okay just as I was, and that I just needed to like myself and then other people would come around. But mostly she listened when I needed to talk, built me up and just loved me.
Oh, how I ache for people who don't have meaningful relationships with their earthly parents! How difficult it must be to believe in God's love for us when you have no one modeling it here! I remember a time that I had made a choice that I was extremely ashamed of, and it took me a while to work up the courage to tell Mom about it, because for the first time that I could remember I had to wonder if she could still love me after she knew what I had done. When I finally did, she handled it just right. She said to me, "Rachael, you're okay. And I still love you." And that helped me feel like Heavenly Father still loved me, too. In fact, in that moment I knew that He did, and that I was not a lost cause.
Thank you, Mom for helping me believe in my worth as a daughter of God. That was a priceless gift. I love you.

We Love You, Angela

I'll go stream of thought style for this one . . . I remember loving Angela's sweet, angelic (how appropriate!) singing voice from the very beginning - the quality has always reminded me of a flute, and I loved it when she sang around the house . . . Angela picking me up from piano lessons at Sister Seamons' house in Jerome and driving in a crazy serpentine pattern to make me laugh (I loved it when she did that) . . . from my perspective, it has always seemed like Angela was ready at any moment to have a party, and she would be well prepared with plenty of junk to party with . . . after high school she went to Provo and we all got showered with BYU gear - it was beautiful :) . . . more than once I sneaked into Angela's room (which was always so neat, it was rather shocking compared with other rooms in the house) and stole some of the candy she often kept on hand - sorry about that, Angela - I think she knew it was me, but I don't remember her ever yelling at me about it . . . I remember thinking that she was just gorgeous, particularly for her engagement and wedding photos - what a knock out! . . . also have vivid memories of her in her prom dress that mom made - pretty sure that style of dress was prominent in my drawings for a long time after that . . .

The older I get the more amazing I think Angela is. I'm pretty sure I know no other adult that is less likely to hold a grudge than her. It's just not how she's programmed! She seems to have an infinite well of forgiveness in her heart, and I just love that about her. She takes people as they are, and never seems to expect anything different. It ended up not being in the Lord's plan for me to serve a mission, but I planned on it from the age of twelve, being highly influenced by the choices of my older siblings, including Angela. I was just so proud of her. Even though I didn't end up serving a full-time mission, I know that even just planning and preparing for it was a blessing in my life. I love Angela so much. What a fantastic older sister she is. She's fully supportive and completely non-judgmental - you can't have a better cheerleader than that! When she showed up at the marathon around mile twenty-four last year - well, it was just perfect timing. I needed that boost right then; she gave me the motivation to actually finish the rest of the race at a run. I don't think I'd have managed it without that. She's just amazing, and I am continually awed by her strength and her tremendous faith. The perfect phrase to describe her is "steadfast and immovable."

Memories of Angela

Angela was always Momma's girl, with her little brown curls and big blue eyes.  When she was young and got tired, she would just lay her head on the couch seat with her legs still on the floor.  She followed Raymond all around.  She was pretty tender.  When she got on another little boy's tricycle in the quad housing at BYU where we lived, he was going to push her off, but Raymond came to the rescue.  Told the little boy, she wasn't going to hurt it and she would get off.  She did.  She loved to swing.  Of course, she loved to run and fall on the swing to swing herself and then the famous miss when she went too far and went right over onto her face.
I noticed a little determined attitude in her around 5th grade and I knew if I taught her well in the gospel plan of happiness, she would never leave the path.  It has been a great blessing for me to see her solidly on the Lord's side, keeping her covenants and cherishing her own children. 
As a child, it was brought to my attention, that she needed order.  Her room, including her drawers, closet, bed, etc. were always just so. 
She was compassionate and that made her a great coach for the special Olympics in Jerome.  And she was very strong, so she could push wheel chairs.
I remember when she had out-of-school learning at a daycare.  She came home declaring, "They don't need a school, they need a mom."  She really hurt for those children.
It was also hard for her to watch the elderly at the hospital care facility.  "I'll never put you in one of those places."  Angela wasn't much for words, but her heart was simple and full.  ...of such is the kingdom of heaven .

Lesser Known Memories of Dave

My first memory of Dave was actually just 'hearing' about him. Around the time that I announced to people at school that I would be moving across town I was exchanging notes with a mutual friend. I hadn't yet met Dave, and somehow my friend knew the ward boundaries even across town. When he learned my new location he wrote in a note, "You'll be in Big Dave's ward." My thought was, "Who is 'Big Dave'?" Neither Dave nor I recall the first time we spoke, but I do remember the day that I put a face with the name. Our first Sunday in our new ward, the Sunday school teacher introduced everyone in the class to me. After he introduced David Allred I thought, "So that's 'Big Dave'. He's not very big." :)
During our senior year, I got rides with Dave a lot to school, partly to make sure that I could be on time to ballroom (he's very punctual). One day that I'd gotten a ride with him I had some errand that needed doing and somewhat urgently apparently because I asked him to drive me there during the lunch hour. We had AP English together after lunch and we arrived a little late. We walked into the classroom separately and tried to  stagger it slightly to try to avoid teasing, but it didn't work. Boy, we got a lot of ribbing from our class mates. That was the first time that our teacher ever got a hint that we might be more than friends.
After his mission, and after our first post-mission date someone that came through my checkout line invited me to go swing dancing that evening. I didn't really know him, but he was a friend of a friend from work and so I said yes. I was a little nervous since I couldn't even recall the guys' name, but not nearly as nervous as mom was. She was so upset with me for accepting a date with a guy that I didn't even know! While she was still at the store Dave came in and I invited him to come with me, as a safety measure and because I just wanted him with me. Mom was so relieved. I was driving somehow - the guy (Travis) met me at the store, and then I picked up Dave who wasn't too thrilled to go (since he really doesn't love dancing) but was going to keep me safe. Dave was in the backseat by himself and Travis held up the conversation single-handedly, talking about himself and horses. *eye roll* We ended up meeting a group of people at the dance that Travis had planned on meeting up with, which meant that he definitely had a ride back home. I danced with him once (he was awful), and then Dave and I got out of there. So, it all worked out!
Dave got me out of more than one scrape while we were single, and keeps me sane now. I always knew I could count on him for anything - even after I'd broken up with him (I did try not to take advantage of him since I knew that I'd broken his heart, though)! He's always been a gentleman - completely respectful of me as a woman and as a person. He's a really smart and steady man, but he's never made me feel inferior. In fact, he's made me feel like I am capable of doing anything. I am profoundly grateful to have him in my life, and to have had him in my life for so long. He's just my favorite person ever. The end. :)