Thursday, January 29, 2009

Women of God

After my last post with the silly songs about motherhood I thought I would follow up with this amazing quote about womanhood by Margaret D. Nadauld a former General Young Women President of the church.

"Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity" ("The Joy of Womanhood," Ensign, Nov. 2000, 15).

I first read this quote in a recent Visiting Teaching message but was reminded of it on another blog. What a great list of characteristics for all of us women to be working on.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now know that I have a love for definitions. So I am going to plaster a few here in the context of this quote:

Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough or hardened; we need women who are tender or easily moved to compassion and loving. There are enough women who are coarse or harsh; we need women who are kind, considerate, and gentle. There are enough women who are rude or impolite; we need women who are refined or pure. We have enough women of fame and fortune or great wealth; we need more women of faith, confidence, and belief in God. We have enough greed or excessive desire for wealth and possessions; we need more goodness or moral excellence. We have enough vanity or pride of self; we need more virtue or chastity and righteousness. We have enough popularity or worldly approval; we need more purity or innocence and cleanliness.

How do you keep in perspective our divine role as woman? What have you done to avoid falling into the trap of becoming a woman of the world? What can we do to develop and strengthen these attributes of women of God and become more Christ-like?

7 comments:

Untypically Jia said...

I absolutely love this quote! I knew it from the very first line, it's one of my favourites! I did like the motherhood videos too tho.

Stephanie said...

For me, the standard is simply the Savior and they type of women he probably enjoyed hanging out with. My guess is that the women of the world today don't measure up to well. The greatest women I know are women who strive to be Christ-like.

Mona said...

Paige,

I don't know if you've gone back to my very fist posting in December of last year, but the title is "My Gospel Definitions" -- so we share a love for that sort of thing! Within that list of definitions is my take on

PRIDE: a soul trying to convince itself of its worth

as opposed to...

HUMILITY: a soul convinced of its worth to God.

It seems to me that the differences between Women of God and Women of the World lie most basically within these two definitions.

Keep us all thinking!!!! There's nothing I'd rather think (and write about) than Father's Plan!

Mona
http://monasgospelmusings.blogspot.com/

Christa said...

I absolutely love it! It brought me to tears, because I need to try so much harder to be more of a woman of God. Thank you for the encouragment.

Anonymous said...

I love this quote!

pam said...

I tried posting early but it didn't work, if it did ignore this- sorry. I love that talk, it really does keep me on my toes and watch what I do and how I teach my daughters. I also love the talk from Julie B. Beck; it will be posted on my site sunday (sorry I post a head some times). We just need to listen what the prophet tells us and it can be as simple as not wearing flip flops to church and wearing nylons instead. Being a little nicer...and just praying really hard for our daughters, I know I worry about my daughters when they see their friends and so called good people not doing what is right, it's hard. We just need to stay strong and keep the faith.

Pokemon said...

Thank you for all of your wonderful comments.

I loved your responses to make the standard the Savior, the great definitions of pride and humility, and the desire to teach our daughters how to be women of God.

I also loved Christa's reponse. You can tell that you have a strong conscience and desire to become a better women.

Thanks again for all of your comments, thoughts, ideas, and experiences.