On Strong Women

My last post was about priesthood.  I wrote it because it means so much to me.  I'm writing this because it means just as much. 

I have met many strong women in my life.  Many of them were in my own family.  Many of them have been in the church.  There is a weird perception that women in the church, especially if they are "homemakers and moms", are just a little more than robots following some great man along.  This has not been my observation at all.  I find myself surrounded by strong women and wishing that they were surrounded by equally strong men but many of them are not.  It makes me even more grateful to know that I have become strong in part because I am backed by strength.

I have tons of pioneer ancestors, women who left everything to come to the Salt Lake Valley and beyond for the faith they chose to believe in.  I look back on many of them and think that "if they can do it, so can I".  They have been a deep and stabilizing force in my life even though they had no idea they would touch the life of anyone in this century.  They were physically strong and mentally tough.  They were survivors in the hardest of circumstances.  To them I pay homage for their courage and endurance.

I have had many positions in the church and community.  In all of them, I have been surrounded by strong women.  I think I have never met women who were stronger than those I worked with in the temple and the MTC.  No weeklings here for sure.  They had minds of their own and made decisions accordingly.  They were strong in word and in deed and didn't mind if someone knew it.  There were few if any mindless followers of anything there.  For the most part, they knew where they were going and why. 

The women I work here in the mission field with are strong women.  Many of them whom I live among are women on their own in the gospel.  They have made a decision and many of them have to do it on their own with considerable opposition or at least, minimal support.  They amaze me as they come to church week after week without husbands and/or children, hoping that those same will someday embrace what they know to be true.  They join the church in their later years, again alone or at younger ages with children to care for and no husbands to support them.  They all see that there is a real future in this gospel through their Savior.  These decisions are not made lightly.

What is often disappointing to me is the little if any recognition these women get for all they do.  The men here are an interesting lot.  Rugby and drinking is the culture of so many that it is difficult to count.  Children spend their whole lives trying to get the attention of their fathers who are on the field, at the bar or in a party with their "mates" while the mothers who stay at home holding the family together get virtually no mention.   Why do men think that they have no allegiance to this family they were willing to create but take no responsibility for.  I know a "boy" here who has 7 children and proudly states it but has custody of or responsibility toward none.  A sad commentary this.

Thanks to you moms who are there to hold these families together.  Thanks to all you strong women who give me reason to try and remain strong.  Thanks to the women of the world who really believe that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.  It may not seem so but it is true.