Ward Conference Lesson

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Ward Conference Lesson



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"What Would A Holy Woman Do?" Fireside Talks

"What would a holy woman do?"

by Linda Young

According to the Old Testament, things or places were holy that were set apart for a sacred purpose; the opposite of holy is therefore common or profane (1 Sam. 21:5; Ezek. 22:26; 42:20; 44:23; 48:13–15). Similarly, a holy person meant one who held a sacred office. (Bible Dictionary)

"As we have seen by the example of these amazing sisters, being a holy woman of covenant in the latter-day really means we were set apart for a sacred purpose - we hold a sacred office. I invite the sisters of the Kirtland Stake to be mindful of this blessing and responsibility. Being holy is shown in small seemingly insignificant acts that show an understanding of this sacred office."

"We are familiar and love when President Johnson teaches us using the tales of Piggy and Gerald.  Forgive me, I seem to keep finding inspiration in opera - this year in the quintessential opera Die Valkyrie. I am a descendant of the Norse oral tradition that passed down from generation to generation the ideology of the Valkyrie - who are strong, fearless women - selected and set apart to be special assistants to their God - Odin. I’ve taken a broad interpretation of these mythological women and in particular the Wagnarian interpretation, to help us understand that to be holy women we may need to recognize a little Valkyrie in each of us."

Whatever our age, location, or circumstance, we gather tonight in unity, in strength, in purpose, and in testimony that we are loved and led by our Heavenly Father; our Savior, Jesus Christ; and our living prophet, President Russell M. Nelson (Joy Jones - October 2018).

Sister Jones mentioned 4 qualities that I believe define holy women of the latter-day.  Unity, Strength, Purpose and Testimony. These are also characteristics that I see exemplified by the Valkyrie .

1. Unity - the Valkyrie travel as a band of sisters. When one Sister got in trouble, her sister valkyries circled around her and offered her protection.

1. Why is it important to be unified?

1. For protection
1. President Johnson - sheepfold. Sheep from different flocks are brought together each night into one fold for better protection from wolves.
2. President Ashton - Satan uses loneliness to his advantage. Like a wolf attacking a flock of sheep, one of his primary tactics is to separate one individual from the others and render that individual weaker because it is alone. Sometimes he is able to entice us to separate physically from others around us, but often he can achieve his purpose simply by making us feel alone and isolated. Most of us, I guess, have had the experience of feeling lonely and alone even when surrounded by people.
2. To have access to power
1. Vaughn J. Featherstone “This great truth about unity was of such consequence that it was one of the major things for which Christ prayed in His intercessory prayer. We do not yet comprehend the power and the spiritual strength that will come to the Church when we are totally united in truth and have become sanctified. A power surge would come from this Church that would startle the world and reach into every nation, state, community, village, and home, as it did in the days of Enoch and as it will yet happen during the millennial reign.” (The Incomparable Christ: Our Master and Model[Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1995], 28.

Sisters - as holy women, I ask you to follow the example of the Valkyrie - there should be no contention one with another, we should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having our hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another. (Mosiah 18)

2. Strength  - Strength = Armor Take upon us the whole armor of God. Visit the stake RS blog to see images of how the Valkyries are dressed in armor. (RS Blog http://kirtlandrswomenoffaith.blogspot.com)

1. They carry shields - will discuss later
2. They carry sword/spear.
3. In a sense they walk about fulfilling their duty - dressed in the armor of God.
4. Ephesians 6 and D&C 27 – take a moment to truly study and ponder on the meaning of each element of the armor of God and how you can more effectively wear it.

3. Purpose

1. The Valkyrie were daughters of a God - and they knew it.  Everything they did every day was with that knowledge and purpose. They loved discussing and reminding each other of this purpose and they went about this work with a sense of joy.  
2. The Valkyrie were taught to be Warriors  Volton tells them “I brought you up to be bold in battle.” And I think our Father in Heaven would say the same to us.
3. In order for us to be bold in battle we need to make use of Priesthood Power - the power of God here on earth.
4. President Henry B. Eyring - (quoting the Savior said) You remember what He said: “How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints.”1 Part of the Lord’s current sharing of knowledge relates to accelerating His pouring out eternal truth on the heads and into the hearts of His people. He has made clear that the daughters of Heavenly Father will play a primary role in that miraculous acceleration.
5. Elder M. Russell Ballard declared that “when men and women go to the temple, they are both endowed with the same power, which is priesthood power. . . . Access to the power and the blessings of the priesthood is available to all of God’s children.”29 Sister Dew continues “Though we as women are not ordained to an office in the priesthood, in the temple we are endowed with priesthood power and we are also endowed with knowledge to know how to use that power.”30 (Sweet above all that is sweet Dew 2014)

Sisters, as we make, keep and honor sacred covenants we have access to the power we need to fulfill our sacred office. Share experiences where you saw this promise being fulfilled. Live to access priesthood power in your own life. Its use is like a muscle - its strength increases with use.  

4. Testimony

1. Brunnhilde - The quip “it aint over until the fat lady sings.” references Brunnehilde - You may be feeling a bit like the weary opera attender because in a sense - I am your Brunnhilde - It's not over until I’m done talking.  
2. Brunnhilde means  Shieldmaiden = shield of faith
1. President Russel M. Nelson - Today, … we need women who know how to make important things happen by their faith and who are courageous defenders of morality and families in a sin-sick world. We need women who are devoted to shepherding God’s children along the covenant path toward exaltation; women who know how to receive personal revelation, who understand the power and peace of the temple endowment; women who know how to call upon the powers of heaven to protect and strengthen children and families; women who teach fearlessly.”

In preparing for this with the Valkyries in mind, I downloaded this familiar tune - Ride of the Valkyries that plays as the Valkyries arrive from heaven to perform their specified task on earth.  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10177/10177-m/10177-m-001.mp3

Perhaps comically after I downloaded the music every time I got in my car this song played as I left the spiritual fortress of my home as Elder Rasband calls it, I imagined myself as this powerful force venturing out into the world to share the light and love of the gospel of Jesus Christ in simple holy woman kind of ways. Then my imagination got the best of me and I imagined all your cars leaving your fortresses and going out into the world to the ride of the Valkyrie - I recommend this. It will add a little thrill to your day.

Remember the examples of these Valkyries behind me. Look at your daily actions and see if you can improve them with a holier approach. Let us continue to gather in unity, in strength, in purpose, and in testimony knowing that we are loved and led by our Heavenly Father; our Savior, Jesus Christ; and our living prophet, President Russell M. Nelson.  In this way, we can fulfill our sacred office. We can be holy.

What Would A Holy Woman Do?by Natalie McGarry

Linda could NOT have given me this challenge at a more inspired time. It came as we were preparing to move across the country and were extremely busy! We were experiencing many firsts like buying our first home which has been both exciting and stressful.

I am a primary chorister in our ward which is the best-kept secret in the church. It is such a joy-filled calling! To introduce the children to the second verse of I am trying to be like Jesus I printed off a giant life-sized picture of the savior and pasted it on cardboard for an activity for singing time. The picture was so big that it was hard to store and ended up getting moved around the house from room to room throughout the week leading up to singing time by me or the kids. It seemed like each time I asked myself, "What would a Holy woman do?" I would look up and see the beloved picture of the Savior with His hands outstretched.

He seemed to me to be saying, "I'll be here to help you with whatever tasks you need to complete today, all you need do is ask and let me in to help". I came to more fully understand that just like the primary song states, He is always near us though we do not see Him there and because He loves us dearly, we are in His tender care.

Sometimes we go about our tasks without thinking about him or letting him in. We get distracted or think we can do it on our own. He will not force His help on us. He will stay lovingly nearby until we use our agency to bring that task or situation to Him and make it not just a temporal task but a spiritual one and he will lift our burden. He gives us more energy, happiness, patience, perspective, and peace.

The picture was a reminder that asking ourselves, "what would a holy woman do?" is really an invitation to let the savior into that task or situation. Each time I did this, my own patience, ability, wisdom, and talents were magnified and multiplied much like the loaves and the fishes.

I did the experiment many times and have more stories than I have time for, but let me share a couple that were significant for me.

I am a list maker/ day planner type person, and I love to plan my day, check things off my list and feel productive, which works out great and I keep it well balanced most of the time. However, when things get busy, I tend to focus more on those TASKS and less on my CHILDREN. I meet their needs and respond appropriatly when they talk to me, but inside I am thinking about what needs to get done and when things are really busy, like they have been lately, I at times and during extremely long-winded stories about what happened at recess, or after the 30th knock-knock joke, am hoping they will finish and go play so that I can tackle the laundry, or clean up the kitchen.

One hectic day while I was preparing dinner, I looked out my front window at my children playing in the yard and asked myself, "what would a holy woman focus on right now?" and a scripture from 3rd Nephi flooded my mind, and heart, “Behold your little ones”

At that moment I realized that I had looked and listened to my little ones all day, but I hadn't really SEEN them. As I gazed again out the window everything seemed to be in slow motion. It was a truly tender gift that was given to me by Heavenly Father that I cannot fully describe. I watched as they threw balls, ran, played, smiled and giggled. Each of their diverse personalities were out on full display. I feel like I got to see a small glimpse into the way God sees them. It was heavenly! I followed each of their gazes and could see what they were focussed on and what motivated each of their playful actions.

I could see how each of their strengths and even their weaknesses add a dynamic to our family that we need. It helped remind me to focus less on the small insignificant junk behaviors that are fleeting, and instead be more patient and focus my energy on noticing more frequently their noble and defining character traits. To pause and take the time look into their little eyes more often and see things from their perspective. It motivated me to put a mirror up in a high traffic area of our house for a few days to remind myself what face my children are seeing. Do I get down on their level, look into their eyes, and talk softly as I give them instructions or listen to their stories. Do I see them for who they can become, and enjoy them in all their glory more fully? Do I see them not as something I need to squeeze into my time, but what God gave me time for?

At the beginning of the year, we were thrilled about "come follow me" and couldn't wait to implement it in our family. Dave and I considered it prayerfully and decided that we would still do our morning family scripture study out of the book of Mormon because our children are little and need that each day. The two younger ones are not yet studying the book of Mormon on their own. We have seen the power that studying that book in our home brings, so we didn't feel right about doing come follow me for our family scripture study. And we have a system that we really like for family night which includes testimonies and ppi interviews the first week of the month, Family history the second week of the month, a lesson from the strength of youth the 3rd week, a preach my gospel lesson the 4th week, and whatever we feel our family needs on 5th weeks. It is a full schedule so we did not see how to replace it with "come follow me" and do it well. We decided to have family devotionals several nights a week to implement "come follow me" into our home. I love it, and we have felt the blessings in our home, however doing it at night has reminded me why we do our family scripture study in the morning even though there is a lot of going on in the mornings. Its because we are more likely to not forget in the mornings, and Dave and I have more energy to do the work it takes to gather our children, and learn together.

Often, come follow me in the evenings was a struggle, and I felt unprepared and exhausted :)

One Saturday, which is Dave a I's preparation day where we take a minute at night to talk about what is going on that week and plan our family teaching. We switch off being in charge of family scripture study and come follow me and plan family nights and family councils together.

Right before our planning session, I asked myself, "How would a holy woman teach her children?" immediately I remembered a quote from general conference a few years back. I couldn't remember who had said it but I looked it up. Bradley D. Foster had stated, "Do we recognize that our children are the largest group of investigators in the church?" This thought ran through my mind and became my purpose statement throughout the week in preparing myself to teach my children the gospel through "come follow me". It motivated me on nights where I felt I was dragging and energized me to lovingly gather my children for "come follow me". I started to recognize more than I ever had the power and influence Dave and I have for good in our home and the world. We will never be able to have influence on any investigator the way we do on our children. They are living with us and can be daily nurtured and immersed in the doctrine.

We only get our children in our home for a few years and I don't want to miss an opportunity to prepare them spiritually for what they will face in the world.

Come follow me nightly devotionals are still not perfect. There is plenty of teasing, and fidgeting and random comments. But D&C 123:17 says

Therefore, dearly beloved brethren (or sisters), let us

CHEERFULLY do all things that lie in our power; and

then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to

see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be

revealed.” I can only control me and my preparation and attitude. I let Heavenly Father make up for the rest. I can honestly say that the spirit is there more abundantly and we all leave feeling closer and uplifted. We are learning line upon line precept upon precept. And there are times when I have looked around our cozy living room at the faces of my husband and children as we are learning together and have felt an abundance of love and gratitude for each of them. I have felt astonished at comments that come out of the mouth of my babes and have felt a witness from the Lord telling me that we are where we need to be, doing what we need to be doing even though some nights it is difficult.

After taking on this invitation, I can testify that there is nothing too big or too small that cannot be improved by simply and sincerely asking ourselves, "What would a holy woman do?"

The power in this phrase comes from the built invitation to draw closer to THE HOLY ONE. The one who has power to make us holy and purified, and strong. No self-help book, podcast, advice, or social media account can do that. The best thing that we can do for ourselves as women is to turn to our Savior, even Jesus Christ who stands loving, ready, and willing to help us if we let Him in. I know that we will be blessed as we do. In the name of Jesus Christ amen.

What Would a Holy Woman Do?

by Carrie Anne Rhodes

When I first read this book, it was a gorgeous, early Spring day in Cleveland. The sun was shining & there was barely a chill in the air. I read the book shortly before my children started coming home from school. I had read all of the experiences of the women in the book, so I initially thought, “I can do this & I can choose to be holy.” My oldest son asked me to play one on one basketball with him, so I happily obliged. We went outside, the weather was amazing, and I trashed talked him & hooted & hollered whenever I made a great play. Then I thought, “Would a holy woman be so obnoxious?” I also had the thought that it’s easy to choose holiness when you’re rested, when you’ve had enough caffeine, when the sun is shining, when the majority of your tasks are complete. I also thought that I needed to understand holiness more, because I felt as though being holy was more than what I was thinking.

So...I asked Alexa. “Alexa, what does holiness mean?” She answered, “specially recognized as or declared sacred by religious use or authority; consecrated.” I then had the thought that we are inherently holy individuals because we are children of a Heavenly Mother & a Heavenly Father. I then asked Alexa what consecrated means to which she replied, “to make or declare sacred, set apart or dedicate to the service of a deity; sacred.” Then I asked, “What does sacred mean?” to which I heard, “devoted or dedicated to a deity or to some religious purpose; consecrated.”

My thoughts deepened in that each of us is already holy because we are daughters of heavenly parents. Our heavenly parents are the deity from which we came & to whom we consecrate our lives.

In the talk, The Living Bread Which Came Down From Heaven by Elder Christofferson, he talks about how daily we choose holiness & it needs to be constant. Often it is making sacrifices & it’s the service we give. This goes along with the idea we can choose to dedicate our individual lives to deity.

I thought of my dear friend & neighbor who cares for her family & husband who has a disability. We go on long walks and enjoy long conversations that are like therapy for each other. She’s Jewish & not extremely religious, but we have long discussions about so many topics, including religion. For a long time she didn’t feel appreciated for the mundane tasks she performed in the home & it often didn’t feel meaningful. Recently she had some experiences where she recognized that her seemingly insignificant tasks actually make things go smoother for the family. What originally seemed mundane became her daily consecration to her family.

Marion G. Romney said service is the fiber of which an exalted life is made.

For me personally, I choose a lot of opportunities to serve in & out of my home. I find a lot of fulfillment in working, volunteering in my kids’ schools, meeting with friends, volunteering in my community, exercising with my sweaty sisterhood, being a mother, being a spouse. I fill my life with a lot of good things that are meaningful. So I thought for me, how could I apply “What would a holy woman do?” to decisions I make on taking on new opportunities of work and service. How could I make sure that what I was choosing was an offering of consecration to deity? There are a lot of opportunities of good things & I always want to say yes. I focused on taking the time to contemplate & ponder how these choices to say yes or no would impact my life & my family. I pondered, prayed, and really took the time to allow myself to think about how this decision to take on or not take on an opportunity would help me be more present in my relationships & experiences. I really thought of how my life is a consecration to the Lord & how can I declare my devotion to deity in what I choose to do. What would that mean for me when choosing opportunities?

I said no to many things and I said yes to many things after really thinking about how it would add to conscrating my life to God. A general peacefulness came to my life. I had confidence in myself & in the choices I made. I allowed myself moments of pause & rest throughout the week where I could feel the influence of the Holy Ghost with promptings & ideas. I was present in conversations with others. Rather than waiting for my opportunity to insert my agenda I truly listened so I could hear & understand what the other person was telling me. I understood my capacity of what I could & could not take on, knowing that my focus was on consecrating my life to the Lord. I was able to maintain an eternal perspective. I could find stillness & wholeness to my life.

To be clear, I’m not perfect at it. It’s also easier to choose holiness when you feel good.

I want to acknowledge the tricky dynamic of being holy & being human. One of my children likes to pull the pillows off of my couches every single day. He lines up all of his toys & uses the pillows to build a ship. Every single day. A holy woman would probably embrace this moment. But, being who I am, I have Gretchen Rubin in my mind reiterating, “outer order, inner calm.” So as much as I love that he is being creative, I am also someone who is organized & prefers order. Holiness to the Lord is a constant daily focus. There is holiness in stillness & chaos, in calm & anxiety, in peace & fear because of our Savior. Holiness is growing & learning & turning our hearts & wills to God & moving forward.

It’s my testimony that we are holy human beings who our Heavenly Parents love for our individuality & desires to be holy in all that we do.