This Way to Exaltation

©Darrell Wyatt

 

 

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him.
We will "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things,
and in all places" (Mosiah 18:9) as we strive to live
the Young Women values, which are:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works
Integrity and
Virtue.
We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values,
we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants,
receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation. 

Except for a few added words, this is what my sisters and friends and I would recite at least once a week during church classes and activities.  It was called our Young Women's Theme.  I had a poster with the theme on it hanging on my bedroom wall, and a copy of it in my scriptures.  It is so important that even now, as one of the Young Women's Athletic Directors, I repeat it (as directed by the Stake leaders) with my girls before every basketball game, volleyball game, softball game, and indoor soccer game.

I was thinking about this theme this morning, as I was reading the chapter from whence it originated, and I was wondering if it is still as much a part of who I am as it was when I was a teen.  So I broke it down.

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love him.

I am still a daughter of my Heavenly Father, and I do still love him.  I think this was harder for me to understand when I was younger.  I believe teenage girls all go through a period in life where they wonder if anyone at all loves them.  We wonder who we are and what our place in the world is.  We know we are daughters of God, but we don't always remember that when we're facing the seemingly insurmountable challenges of adolescent life.  Now that I've grown and matured (a little anyway), I completely understand the unconditional love that God has for me, and it is very easy to reciprocate that love.

We will "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places"...

I'm not sure that I have perfected this one yet.  I don't always remember that, as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I do stand as a witness for Him.  My words and actions can either reflect well upon Him or poorly.  Am I a good witness or a bad witness?  I must stand as a witness at all times (even that time of the month) and in all things (even church basketball), and in all places (even at the mall on Black Friday).

...as we strive to live the Young Women values...

Strive.  That's all.  Just try my best.  No one's perfect, and no one's expected to be perfect.  But the more I strive for perfection, the closer I will come.

...which are:

Faith...

Faith is a tough one for an adult, let alone for a teenager.  As kids, all of us were much more literal than we are as adults.  It's hard to comprehend something that we cannot see.  However, my faith as a teenage girl was much simpler than the faith that I have now.  Back then, most of my faith dealt with whether or not the church was true, whether the things my Sunday School teachers were telling me were true, whether or not the Book of Mormon was the word of God.  As I've grown, I've come to know the truth of those things, making having faith in them unnecessary.  Today, my faith lies with more difficult things.  As I said in my post a few days ago, I must have faith in tithing.  I have to use faith when raising my kids, because there's no way of knowing how things are going to turn out.  Sometimes it takes faith to even get out of bed in the morning.  As long as I'm striving to live with faith, I will reap the rewards of that faith.

Divine Nature, Individual Worth

As a girl, and now a woman, I don't know of a time where I have been completely comfortable with myself. Yes, I know that I'm a daughter of God.  I know that I have inherited divine qualities from Him.  But there aren't many times that I can look in the mirror and say, "Look at that!  I am a daughter of God!".  More often than not, the negative feelings I have about myself trump anything positive that I've been told.  This is Satan's way of discouraging me.  

My mom and I went to a women's conference last weekend.  It was amazing!  One of my favorite talks was given by DeAnne Flynn, an author.  She talked about our divine nature, our individual worth.  "You are MAGNIFICENT!", she kept saying.  By the time she was done speaking, I really did feel magnificent.  Maybe I need to have that saying printed in vinyl and stuck to my mirrors.  If I keep telling myself that I'm magnificent, it won't be too long before I'll believe it and start acting magnificently.  The brain is a funny thing.

Knowledge

Speaking of brains, where did mine go?  Somewhere between babies and teenagers, I lost it.  I didn't lose it all at once though - just slowly, over the years, it has felt like pieces of the knowledge that I used to have just flew out the window.  If I could do anything differently over the past sixteen years, it would be to take time to learn more.  To read good books.  To take a class or two in a subject that I'm interested in.  Now that my kids are all gone during the day, I feel as if I'm getting some of that knowledge back.  But I have to work at it!  Nothing comes as easy to me as it did twenty years ago.

Choice and Accountability

I remember, as a teenager, being completely overwhelmed with all of the choices before me.  What college would I attend?  Would I even go to college?  Where would I live when left home?  What would I be when I "grew up"?  I also remember thinking that I couldn't wait to grow up.  Surely things would become easier after I had made all those decisions.  Little did I know that each choice brought a myriad of new decisions to make.  I still have so many choices to make.  The hard thing about making choices as a mom is that, while I'm still accountable for the consequences of my decisions, there are many times that those consequences will affect the lives of seven other people - six of whom look to me to know all the answers and to make the right choices.

Good Works

This is one area that I can say I have vastly improved in.  I don't say that to brag, since it's not hard to improve upon teenage "good works".  I live in a neighborhood where service comes second nature.  On any night of the week, someone in our ward is the recipient of a home-cooked meal, delivered by a neighbor.  Someone is mowing someone else's lawn or taking out someone else's garbage or driving someone to a doctor's appointment.  If a service clip board is passed around Relief Society, the slots will have been completely taken up before it can reach the back of the room.  Good Works is something that has been ingrained in us since we were in Young Women's, and maybe even before.  Even if, as teenagers, we weren't  exactly "in to" helping others, we learned it.  In our own way, we were probably striving.

Integrity

What an important thing integrity has been as I've grown. I feel like I have always tried to be true to who I am.  This is definitely one of the values that has become easier for me to live as I've grown older.  As a young woman, I don't think that I knew who I was enough to stay true to myself.  Now that I know, I find it much less difficult to do. In thinking about it, though, I've decided that some of my integrity could be a result of a little bit of laziness.  I've seen people with a lack of integrity, and that just seems like so much work!  They have to expend way too much energy covering up the last lie or hiding their behaviors from those around them.  To me, it's much less burdensome to just stay honest.

Virtue

This value was added just recently to the list of Young Women's Values.  What a blessing that my daughters get to learn the importance of virtue.  Of all the values that they will be taught, hands down, this one is the most valuable.  It encompasses all of the others.  There is no virtue without integrity, without service, without knowledge and accountability.  A virtuous woman knows that she is a daughter of God, and a woman of virtue relies on faith.

We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values...

I love that the theme doesn't just stop with "accept these values".  They must be acted upon.  Just knowing isn't enough.  Once again, I have to do.

we will be prepared to strengthen home and family..

This phrase has also been added since I was a young woman.  I love it!  As a woman, I really do set the tone in my home.  I didn't use to believe that, but it's so true.  I used to believe that if my husband came home from work in a bad mood, it was his fault that the rest of the evening was ruined.  It took me a little while to realize that a few kind words and deeds would turn his mood right around.  Men are much better at letting go of emotions than women are.  I set the tone.  I can strengthen my home and family more than any other influence around them.

make and keep sacred covenants,
receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

Because of inspired leaders, at a young age, I was given a road map to exaltation.  The direction in which I should go was laid out in front of me in very explicit detail.  Obviously, I haven't been exalted yet, so that means I have more work to do.  All of these values and instructions and promises really hinge on one thing - me "stand[ing] as a witness of God".  Always.

Click here to read what I read today: Chapter 17
Click here to read what I read today: Chapter 18