Marching Orders

It is a marvelous thing to be a woman.

I sometimes feel sorry for my noble male counter parts because they don't get to see the 5th dimension of things like women-folk get to.

I've been thinking a lot about what that means recently. And as I have I've gotten continuously more and more irked at the "fruits" of the Feminist Revolution. Here - a generation after the fireworks I see a lot of things that concern me.

It's a delicate insanity.

I see women who are marvelous and amazing and precious abandoning themselves and their gorgeous feminine natures and their rights as women to be mothers for what they've learned is being "a woman".

We dress like men, cut our hair like men, make our bodies hard and curveless like men, take on their manner of speech, embrace their (general) stoic dispositions, devalue relationships, elbow them out of their God-given drive and right to provide in the work place, all of these things are everywhere all with the intent to be a "better woman".

This is bad for MANY reasons.

Principally, it neuters our future generations of men. Women - Ladies... we need our men. And we need our men to be men. There are holes to dig and wars to fight and spiders to kill and we could do all of them if we needed to but our men were built to. That's what they do. That's how they feel important and useful. That's how they show us that they love us. How cruel is it to not let them? And frankly, I think it takes a stronger woman to let a man take care of those things than to just do it yourself. If we're doing all of the manly stuff we're upsetting the balance of things. Consequently men don't have much wiggle room and sadly there has been a trend of them becoming a lazy, high maintenance, ungentlemanly and flat out weak and cowardly bunch. It's sad, and I don't like to dwell on it because there are marvelous men out there too. I'm related to a number of them, but its a trend I can't ignore either.

And whats worse is that they are frustrated. They're being told to do one thing but then being criticized and when they do and criticized when they don't. Its a horrible cycle. If they get up and be men we consider them arrogant and if they don't then we consider them weak. Its a lose/lose and it breaks my heart to see. Men are programmed to make their women happy. Its their finest hour when we're speechless with gratitude. If we're constantly displeased no one is happy - ever. And you know the only way to fix it?

Letting women be Women. Then men can be Men.

After this weekend I feel the amazing task and blessing of being a woman. And not just being a woman but being a woman of God. Saturday was the General Relief Society meeting and I have not felt more filled and inspired by one in ages.

I love our leadership.

I love our calling as women.

And mostly I loved the fact that we have been righteous enough to get some marching orders. These meetings are usually really wonderful but I, sometimes, walk away feeling kind of patted on the head. They tell us that we're wonderful and that they love us and that we're doing a wonderful job and what we do doesn't go unnoticed and I bet a lot of us really need to hear that. If not they probably wouldn't have said it. But I sometimes feel like I failed a little too because I never felt very instructed, just praised. I don't know if its my manic tasky nature but it always felt like more of a spiritual bubble bath than a work out. And I expect a training session at General meetings - ya know?

But not this last time. Its probably just a case of me cleaning out the wax from my own ears but I really felt praised and inspired and instructed. Sister Beck and her councillors are so marvelous. I tear up just thinking about them and their tender, intensely feminine strength and their charge and belief in us to become not just members of The Church but Defenders of it. Schooled, learned, tried and passionate defenders of marriage and family and the home by means of being scholars of the doctrines of Jesus Christ and being unmoved in our testimonies. Not because we can do hospital bed corners in 10 seconds flat. Not because we're canning machines. Not because we've quilted enough blankets to build a bridge between Salt Lake and Nigeria. No - that is all secondary to our studied out personal findings of the scriptures and our relationship with the Lord. I love it.

And what more important things can we be called to take proverbial arms up for? What is it that we're programmed to do above all else? And to do it as Women of God and with His blessing and power. I can't say it enough -

Its a marvelous thing to be a woman.

And its a beautiful thing to be a Woman of God.