Women and Sisters
This was written by Mary A., one of our guest writers.
In the November 1985 Ensign, President Gordon B. Hinckley, then Second Counselor in the First Presidency, gave a talk titled “Ten Gifts from the Lord.” The occasion was the General Women’s Meeting, held the Saturday before General Conference.
President Hinckley spoke to women of the church about their gifts and responsibilities in the church and in life, and encouraged them to concentrate on using and developing those gifts rather than being discontented by what they do not have. He said:
Some are prone to complain that you are discriminated against. All of us rejoice in the enlargement of opportunities for women. Under the law, there are few opportunities afforded men that are not now also open to women. With this enlargement of opportunity, a few Latter-day Saint women are asking why they are not entitled to hold the priesthood. To that I can say that only the Lord, through revelation, could alter that situation. He has not done so, so it is profitless for us to speculate and worry about it. May I suggest, rather, that you dwell on the remarkable blessings that are yours, the great positive privileges of your lives as women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the transcendent spiritual gifts that may be yours. I should like to name ten of these, with their coincident responsibilities. I shall have time to comment only briefly on each.
We know President Hinckley as an optimistic man, aware of the negatives of life, but always focusing on the positive and encouraging us to do so as well. He lists in this talk ten gifts that the women of the church have available to them—gifts which they can use and develop and expand to their own benefit and to the benefit of those around them. He speaks not only of the gifts, but of the responsibilities that go with them.
Following are the gifts he lists: doing good, prayer, teaching, presiding, the spirit of prophecy, proclaiming the gospel, the blessings of the temple, ministering in the temple, motherhood, and opportunities for education. Those are far-reaching and inclusive gifts. There is much to be done to fulfill the responsibilities that go with those gifts.
He concludes his talk with these words:
God bless you, my beloved sisters. Please know that you are deeply appreciated. Please know that your place in the divine plan is no less important, no less great, and no less necessary than that of men. Paul has said, “Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord (1 Cor. 11:11).
Count your wonderful blessings. Do not worry away your lives with concerns over “rights,” so-called, but move forward, concerned with responsibilities and opportunities. Your potential is limitless. You are daughters of God, endowed by inheritance with marvelous gifts and immeasurable potential. Accept the challenge. Go forward with confidence in the knowledge that the differences you face are not those which come of discrimination so much as those which come of designation. That you may be happy, and that your lives may be rich with that satisfaction which comes from the development of your spiritual gifts, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I believe President Hinckley’s sincerity. I believe that the Lord sees women as important to His plan of salvation and the building up of Zion. I thought this talk, 21 years old as it is, was an encouragement to positive lives filled with positive work—work to develop talents and abilities, to help others, to grow spiritually. It is as relevant today as it was when first delivered. Read and ponder; think about what you can do with the opportunities you have, and the gifts the Lord has given to us as women.
Mary A. was born in Oklahoma and has lived there all of her life, except for the six months that she lived in Snowflake, Arizona, where she learned about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and joined it. Mary is a commercial lines insurance underwriter and has a B.A. in English. Her ward callings are ward website administrator and visiting teacher. She loves to write and to study many different subjects.
November 9th, 2006 11:58
Thank you for sharing this, Mary! I love President Hinckley. And this was a talk that I didn’t know about. It has given me good things to think about in terms of the different areas of life where I can seek to develop.
I also appreciate your clear faith in our leader. I believe that as we trust in what they say, we will enable our lives to be guided and more peaceful than they would be otherwise.
November 9th, 2006 15:18
Thank you, Michelle. I have enjoyed sometimes searching back through older talks to find some inspiration and insights. I liked this talk because I felt it listed some specifics that we can focus on
November 13th, 2006 15:49
Mary, that was wonderful! I just now had a chance to read this. What spectacular, but simple words: “the differences you face are not those which come of discrimination so much as those which come of designation.” Simple, but true–isn’t that the way the truest answers always are? I love it!
If you’re called to be the Primary President, it doesn’t do you, the ward, or anyone else any good to go about complaining that you’re not the RS President, y’know? Each calling is there to be magnified, and each is as important as the next in administering in the gospel and the kingdom. What is our gender, but a lifelong calling? Not discrimination, but designation!! I love it!
November 14th, 2006 00:55
Thanks, Naiah! That viewpoint makes all the difference, doesn’t it?
November 14th, 2006 08:53
Thanks so much for calling this talk to my attention, Mary. I had forgotten what a powerful and lofty vision of womanhood President Hinckley unfolded to us in that address.
To me, this is an additional example of how blessed we are to have a living prophet through whom the Lord speaks to us regarding the challenges of our day and age. We then can choose to allow those words to uplift and inspire us, or ignore or discount them.
I fully agree that Pres. Hinckley’s message “is as relevant today as it was when first delivered.” Now there are even more standards of the world affecting women that we need to evaluate carefully, and have the courage to reject in favor of the standards of the Lord.
I have followed your advice, “Read and ponder; think about what you can do with the opportunities you have, and the gifts the Lord has given to us as women.” I am excited about trying out new ways of serving, as well as being more conscious of my many blessings as a Latter-day Saint woman in this last dispensation.