As I was getting ready for church this morning I pressed play on my playlist of church music, with not enough time to care or consider sorting my music for the lyrical vs. the instrumental, but all of the music that came up was exactly what I needed. The song "Women at the Well" by Kenneth Cope and performed by Julie de Azevedo came on. It's a great song and got me thinking. If Christ came today and came into one of my political offices how would I greet him and/or treat him. In all honesty, I'd hope that I'd recognize Him and revere him as my Savior, but the thought I had this morning was that I'd probably put Him on a phone and harass Him to make more phone calls and come back again. (Note: Harass in any of my blog posts, including this one, means something different than the legal definition - something much more positive) Even if, and especially if, He was perfect with His calls I'd want Him to make more. As humans - we all can work harder with a little motivation. The problem in this thinking is that the Savior is not your average "Joe" who needs a boost to work hard.
This got me thinking - am I a bit off-kilter to think that I would or should harass the Savior? The answer is absolutely yes - that's a VERY skewed thought. I started evaluating how I treat people and the traits that I embody. I don't think I am completely off-track - my job in field offices has been to manage people to make LOTS of phone calls for political candidates to collect the targets necessary and information necessary to win an election. I'd like to think that despite leaning more on the justice side more than the mercy side I'm still a nice person. I have good friends and I truly love them for all of their wonderful talents and personalities - and some of them even love me too. I guess the self-evaluation came in balancing being a "nice and kind" friend with the much more harsh political professional.
This got me thinking about the Visiting Teaching message for the last 2 months and about what it means to truly be a woman. When I was younger I understood this concept of gender even less than I do now. Today, I know gender is a divine part of who we are and I know that I am supposed to be a woman. I'm still working on understanding all of the "feeling" qualities that this embodies.
So - the Visiting Teaching message for October 2008 had this quote from Sister Margaret Nadauld, former General Young Women's President:
They understand what Elder Neal A. Maxwell meant when he said: “When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses?”
Daughters of God know that it is the nurturing nature of women that can bring everlasting blessings, and they live to cultivate this divine attribute. Surely when a woman reverences motherhood, her children will arise up and call her blessed (see Prov. 31:28).
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.
Oh, how we pray that every young woman will grow up to be all the wonderful things she is meant to be. We pray that her mother and father will show her the right way. May daughters of God honor the priesthood and sustain worthy priesthood holders. May they understand their own great capacity for strength in the timeless virtues that some would scoff at in a modern, liberated world for women.
("The Joy of Womanhood" - November 2000 Ensign)
I'm a confident young woman. I know what my talents are - and those include leadership, speaking my mind to stand up for things worth standing up for, and standing my ground. These are great things in the world and I know I have a role to play in them, but how does that balance with my nurturing and kind femininity? I'm still not sure how it will work out. In the past I just thought that when I had babies that those qualities would develop. I think that was a childish opinion and that I should probably be cultivating them now...
As I thought about this more during church - I was reminded of the story of Mary and Martha from the New Testament (Luke 10).
38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
This is one of my favorite passages from the New Testament or lessons that the Savior taught... for obvious reasons. I'm sure someday I too will be a "Martha" and get lost in getting everything done in time and will need to be taught this lesson again and again. I'm working on it. Really. The thought today and how it applied is learning to slow down and put my priorities back to where they should be. At the moment - this isn't a problem, but give me a month and I'm sure it will be progressing in that direction. I want and need to be kinder/meeker and will be working on that. I think the most important thing is to listen to the spirit and work off of that.
If the Savior were to come into your home or place of business how would you treat him? Happy Sabbath, friends!
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