A Righteous Woman

[Connie]

"To be a righteous woman is a glorious thing in any age. To be a righteous woman during the winding up scenes on this earth, before the second coming of our Savior, is an especially noble calling. The righteous woman's strength and influence today can be tenfold what it might be in more tranquil times. She has been placed here to help to enrich, to protect, and to guard the home--which is society's basic and most noble institution. Other institutions in society may falter and even fail, but the righteous woman can help to save the home, which may be the last and only sanctuary some mortals know in the midst of storm and strife."

Spencer W. Kimball

This quote infuses my soul with a spirit of encouragement and hope during these "hard times." I post it here with the wish to do the same for all of you good and righteous women. :)

[Hemidakota]

We lived in a time when there is continue need to ensure our attempts to develop a universally accepted definition of a woman's ideal role, with rehashing it to world through various media lines that it will become a norm. I have been to countries where, women are still considered second class. Some of which, are told not to speak unless spoken too. For me, this is very grievous and terribly wrong. Thinking about this, I can say, I do love my Heavenly Mother and I await that fatal day, leaving behind mortality, when I can again embarrass her for giving me life and taken that precious moment with HER children. Ill regardless, whatever model these women alienators offer, we do see women today, proclaim themselves to be the exception of what is given by them.

As Sister Susan Easton Black wrote, "Few women today hold fast to long-held traditional standards, as they witness other women tossing off "apron strings" as vestiges of servitude." It is a changing role and a changing world.

She went on to write a book called, "The Sacred Role of Women" and in one of those chapters, remarkable phases were collected;

The Sacred Phases of Womanhood

The sacred phases of womanhood, reaffirmed and expanded for our day, are those taught to Eve and her daughters through the ages. In broadest terms they are the eternal roles of righteous daughter, wife, and mother. In each of these roles, there is a challenge to serve God and his children in such a way that, line upon line and precept upon precept, women become glorified in "a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever." (D&C 132:19.) These roles are as old as Adam and as new as today. The Doctrine and Covenants helps women see clearly each eternal role and how they can make the greatest growth and avoid the failures in each.

The role of daughter. The unfolding of the earthly plan of salvation, as reported in the Doctrine and Covenants, began for women when "the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God." (D&C 76:24.) As daughters of God, women learn the ennobling truth that the Lord "created man, male and female, after his own image and in his own likeness, created he them." (D&C 20:18.)

Adam was the first man and Eve the first woman. Since that early creative period, "our glorious Mother Eve, with many of her faithful daughters who had lived through the ages and worshiped the true and living God," have experienced the opportunities for growth in mortal life. (D&C 138:39.)

As these daughters grow to the age of responsibility, they become subject to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. As such, they "must repent and be baptized." (D&C 18:42.) As daughters keep the Lord's commandments, they desire to progress by making further covenants with God. These covenants include commitment to personal worthiness.

The Doctrine and Covenants speaks of an exemplary daughter, Vienna Jaques. In many ways Vienna becomes a representative model of the many women who respect their womanhood and by their words and actions become Saints.

Vienna was approximately the age of Joseph Smith's parents when she first became acquainted with the Church. She had been a devout Christian who had associated with the Methodists on Bromfield Street in Boston, Massachusetts. While in Boston, she became dissatisfied with her religion and began seeking for a church that evidenced the spiritual gifts described in the New Testament. Hearing of Joseph Smith and his newly published Book of Mormon, she requested a copy. At first reading she was not particularly inspired by the words of the Book of Mormon. One night, however, while she was praying, she saw a vision of the Book of Mormon and resolved to know of its truthfulness.

Her conversion was not instantaneous but came gradually through continual prayer and study of the scriptures. She read the Book of Mormon until she became convinced of its divinity. In 1831 she traveled alone toward Kirtland, Ohio, to meet Joseph Smith. She met the Prophet in Kirtland and accepted baptism. On 8 March 1833 she was instructed by revelation to give the money she had brought from the east to the Church and settle in Missouri: "It is my will that my handmaid Vienna Jaques should receive money to bear her expenses, and go up unto the land of Zion;

"And the residue of the money may be consecrated unto me, and she be rewarded in mine own due time.

"Verily I say unto you, that it is meet in mine eyes that she should go up unto the land of Zion, and receive an inheritance from the hand of the bishop;

"That she may settle down in peace inasmuch as she is faithful, and not be idle in her days from thenceforth." (D&C 90:28-31.)

Forty-six-year-old Vienna Jaques gave all of her money to the Lord's church. In return, she received a portion of her funds from the bishop to maintain herself. This contribution from a single daughter stands as a memorial to her sacrifice and love of God.

Joseph Smith wrote a letter to Vienna on 4 September 1833, in which he wrote: "I have often felt a whispering since I received your letter, like this: `Joseph, thou are indebted to thy God for the offering of thy Sister Vienna, which proved a savior of life as pertaining to thy pecuniary concerns. Therefore she should not be forgotten of thee, for the Lord hath done this, and thou shouldst remember her in all thy prayers and also by letter. . . . Therefore let your heart be comforted; live in strict obedience to the commandments of God, and walk humbly before Him, and He will exalt thee in His own due time. I will assure you that the Lord has respect unto the offering you made.'"

In Missouri, Vienna lost her deeded portion because of mobbing against all Latter-day Saints in that region. Nevertheless, she continued to give service. Heber C. Kimball noted her service in his journal entry concerning illness in Zion's Camp. He wrote, "We had to exert ourselves considerable to attend to the sick, for they fell on every hand." Then he added that there was one woman whom, "I received great kindness from . . . sister Vienna Jaques, who administered to my wants and also to my brethren—may the Lord reward . . . [her] kindness." Vienna Jaques was an exemplar of a righteous daughter in her readiness to accept the laws of God, her devotion to the Lord, and her ability to serve others.

The role of wife. The pivotal covenant that enables a woman to reach her fullest potential is eternal marriage. (D&C 132:18-19.) She desires to be married to a companion who listens to the Lord's command that "thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else." (D&C 42:22.) Such a man desires to begin his marriage union by["enter[ing] into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]." (D&C 131:2.) In this bond of marriage, the couple becomes "one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation." (D&C 49:16.)

In this eternal bond, "women have claim on their husbands for their maintenance." (D&C 83:2.) The word claim means rights, privileges, and entitlements. Maintenance, according to President Spencer W. Kimball, includes the husband's "obligation to maintain loving affection and to provide consideration and thoughtfulness as well as food."

In turn, the righteous wife is told to comfort her husband. (D&C 25:5.) Joseph Smith clarified this counsel to women as wives:

"Submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands, in everything."

Emma Smith is remembered as the woman who faithfully stood by her husband during his life. Emma was a woman of great faith and courage whom the Lord addressed in Doctrine and Covenants, D&C 25, and again in D&C 132. D&C 25 begins, "Hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God, while I speak unto you, Emma Smith, my daughter." This section is personal for Emma, yet latter-day prophets have used it as counsel for daughters of God and wives in Israel. (D&C 25:16.)

Emma is told by the Lord, "Thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou art an elect lady, whom I have called." (D&C 25:3.) The terminology of elect was defined by Joseph Smith on 17 March 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois, when he told the sisters that "elect meant to be elected to a certain work . . . and that the revelation was then fulfilled by Sister Emma's election to the Presidency of the [Relief] Society."

Her calling was to be the wife of a prophet. In this role she was told that "the office of thy calling shall be for a comfort unto my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun., thy husband." (D&C 25:5.) She was to use "consoling words, in the spirit of meekness" with him. (D&C 25:5.) Emma was to cleave to Joseph and to "go with him at the time of his going, and be unto him for a scribe." (D&C 25:6.) She was promised that for faithfully fulfilling her calling as a wife, her "husband shall support thee in the church." (D&C 25:9.)

In addition to these responsibilities as an elect lady and a called wife, Emma was to develop her talents. Emma's talents included expounding the scriptures, exhorting the Church, writing, learning, and selecting sacred hymns. (D&C 25:7-8, 11.) She was told that while fulfilling these responsibilities, she was not to murmur but was to "lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better." (D&C 25:4, 10.) She was also admonished to beware of pride. (D&C 25:14.) If Emma proved faithful, she was to receive "a crown of righteousness." (D&C 25:15.)

Joseph Smith loved Emma, for she did comfort him, she increased her talents, and she heeded the Lord's admonitions. In his love for her, Joseph pleaded with the Lord on her behalf, "Have mercy, O Lord, upon [my] wife . . ., that [she] may be exalted in thy presence, and preserved by thy fostering hand." (D&C 109:69.)

Following Joseph's pleading, Emma again became the subject of the Lord's revelation in D&C 132. Emma is told "to abide and cleave unto my servant Joseph, and to none else." (D&C 132:54.) She is also told to "forgive my servant Joseph his trespasses; and then shall she be forgiven her trespasses . . .; and I, the Lord thy God, will bless her, and multiply her, and make her heart to rejoice." (D&C 132:56.)

Emma is warned that despite her position as an "elect lady" and a called wife, she must endure faithfully to the end or risk losing all, for unless she does endure, "where I am you cannot come." (D&C 25:15.) "She shall be destroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the Lord thy God, and will destroy her if she abide not in my law." (D&C 132:54.)

Throughout her life as a wife to the Prophet Joseph Smith, she experienced persecution and Abrahamic tests. Despite the persecution and the severe tests, Emma was admonished to beware of pride and told to let her soul delight in her husband. Emma's responsibilities were many, and by comparison her weaknesses were perhaps few. Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote, "Just as it is possible for the very elect to be deceived, and to fall from grace through disobedience, so an elect lady, by failing to endure to the end, can lose her chosen status." The lessons from the Lord's revelation to Emma are clear: a wife is to cleave to her husband and comfort him, serve in the Lord's kingdom, and endure faithfully to the end.

The role of mother. As the wife enjoys the marriage relationship, she will anticipate with joy the opportunity of motherhood. As a mother, she will want her children sealed to her and her husband for all eternity by the ordinances and bonds of love. (D&C 138:48.) As parents, the husband and wife will teach the children "to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old." (D&C 68:25.) These children will have "claim upon their parents for their maintenance until they are of age." (D&C 83:4.)

Although Lucy Mack Smith is not mentioned by name in the Doctrine and Covenants, she is mentioned by her designated role of mother in the life of Joseph Smith. Joseph, in his vision of eternal realms, wrote, "I saw Father Adam and Abraham; and my father and my mother; my brother Alvin, that has long since slept." (D&C 137:5.)

This indisputable role of Lucy Mack Smith, mother of the Prophet, was also noted in the minutes of a Church conference held on 8 October 1845 in Nauvoo, Illinois. On that day, according to the minutes, Lucy Smith made the following remarks: "I raised up 11 children, 7 boys. I raised them in the fear of God. When they were two or three years old I told them I wanted them to love God with all their hearts. I told them to do good. I want all you to do the same. God gives us our children and we are accountable. . . . I presume there never was a family more obedient than mine. I did not have to speak to them only once. . . . I want you to teach your little children about Joseph in Egypt and such things, and when they are four years old they will love to read their Bible. . . . Set your children to work; . . . don't let them play out of doors. . . . I call you brothers and sisters and children. If you consider me a Mother in Israel, I want you to say so."

According to the minutes, Brigham Young then arose and said, "All who consider Mother Smith as a Mother in Israel, signify it by saying yes." There were loud shouts of yes, according to the clerk.

Eternal roles. The roles of womanhood found in modern scripture are the same roles found throughout ancient scripture. Furthermore, the roles for righteous women are parallel to those prescribed for righteous men. As the woman became a daughter of God, the man became a son. As the woman became a wife, the man became a husband. As the woman became a mother, the man became a father. These complementary roles and their divine order are basic to the framework of the gospel and the plan of salvation. They have been so since the beginning of time. These are the same roles as those of our ancient forebears, and they are the same as those expected and respected roles in the society of Saints today. Through these roles both men and women can learn the doctrines of salvation and how they are to participate in the laws and covenants of the kingdom of God.