My Role as Woman

As I mentioned in the last post, one of the ways revelation can help us it to understand doctrine. My understanding and testimony about my role as a woman has developed over many years. And I am still learning and gaining more of a testimony. Being a mother and a wife was not always on the top of my priority list and it has been a testimony builder to begin to see what an important calling it is. When I was 16 and struggling to know what I wanted to study and what I wanted to be. I had always thought I wanted to go to medical school and that was it. BUT at that time I realized that I actually DID want to have a family and I appreciated that my mom was home with us and raised us. At a young women's conference President Hinckley said this: "Find purpose in your life. Choose the things you would like to do, and educate yourselves to be effective in their pursuit... Study your options. Pray to the Lord earnestly for direction. Then pursue your course with resolution." I studied my options and found that being PA was a good match for me. During school I would often have classmates tell me that I wasn't supposed to go to graduate school or tell me that I should change my aims because I was getting married. I was very conflicted I knew that in the Proclamation to the World on the Family we are told what Heavenly Father desires for women. "Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children." But I also knew that Heavenly Father wanted us to be educated. In the Six B's talk by the Prophet we are told, "The Lord wants you to educate your minds and hands, whatever your chosen field." I prayed and knew that I was supposed to go to PA school AND be a mother. I could do both. I knew that was the direction that Heavenly Father had given me. Then one day in the middle of the application process I ran into a friend on campus. I was updating him on my application to school and he told me a story about his mom. She was in her 2nd year of law school and decided to quit to have a family. 5 years later she passed away. He said, "I wouldn't be here, if my mom had finished law school and put off having a family." I started freaking out and was panicking that I had made the wrong decision. I decided to go for a drive and I pulled out my scriptures. I questioned why I was opening the scriptures. They are, after all, accounts of people who lived over 2000 years ago. How could I gain insight on whether I should go to graduate school from the scriptures. BUT that is where personal revelation comes in. I read this scripture from 1 Nephi 17 "And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings." I thought about how strength was how men would provide for their families; similar to the way education can be the means for men providing for their families today. The mothers also gave their children their food or nurtured them. As we are supposed to do today. I realized the I could be strong (or educated) like unto the man, yet the role that would be more important is my role as a mother, as a nurturer. I have had it reaffirmed to me many times since then. Getting some education is necessary, but being a nurturing mother is paramount to who I am.