These Women

In my Women's Health class, we talk about a lot of different aspects of health, particularly how we as women are affected by those things. So naturally, I think about women I know a lot. For an upcoming guest speaker, we were asked to listen to four talks about our bodies, about being women, about body image, and things like that.

My first point to make is that I am so grateful to be a member of the church where we have truth spoken to us on a monthly basis through church magazines, and bi-annually in a General Conference of the church, each week in our church meetings, and even every day as archived talks, new videos and inspirational messages are all online. It's baffling, there really isn't another organization out there like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I feel so overwhelmingly lucky.

Secondly, as I listened to the talks, my heart wanted to burst as I thought of these women in my family. The older I get, the more I admire and appreciate them. I am learning about them on new levels, and it inspires me.

God made women divinely. Not that men are made un-divinely, but you get what I mean. We are powerful creations, and I just can't quite put into words how grateful I am to be a woman. One day, I will bring children into the world, and that is such a special capability. Sacred, really. More than just to be a woman, I am grateful to know that I am a daughter of Heavenly Father. Because as wonderful as it is to be a woman, it just wouldn't mean as much if I didn't know that I was specially created by my eternal Heavenly, perfect Father to do marvelous things that only a woman, only I, can do.

I have watched these women (just ignore that handsome young man on my left in the first picture) go through hard things, each and every one of them. And every one of them has shown such incredible strength during those hard times. I don't know if I would be able to do what they do! But I know that when I do go through hard times, they are there for me. We may be far apart in distance, but I love building such close relationships with them even as we are far apart. I am so blessed.

"God placed within women divine qualities of strength, virtue, love, and the willingness to sacrifice to raise future generations of His spirit children." - Quentin L. Cook

The four talks I watched/read were:
Decisions for Eternity - Russel M. Nelson
Love Her Mother - Elaine S. Dalton
To Young Women - Jeffrey R. Holland
Mothers and Daughters - M. Russell Ballard