What Does The Priesthood Look Like?

 

What does priesthood look like? Go home, look at your wife!

I remember one Sunday our class had a great discussion and wonderful insights were shared. At one point the topic of women and the priesthood was discussed and there seemed to be a restraint on the answers given. Restraint on the sense of what it seems as though we as a class were being careful not to hurt the sisters’ feelings with the answers given. Soon it was clear that it wasn’t the sisters’ feelings we were trying to attend to, but that the brethren’s’ ego.

It daunted on me that perhaps one of the reasons why this topic is brought forth could be because we somehow have worked it in our own minds that the mere fact a woman can not administer to the sick or consecrate a grave or a house must mean that she is inferior to a man. That the notion of a man being able to carry out these duties somehow makes him holier, more worthy, or superior.

It seems we have forgotten about Deborah (Judges 4:4) the prophetess, and judge of Israel, of Huldah (2 Kings 22:14), and of Anna (Luke 2:36), but most importantly, it seems we have forgotten about Heavenly Mother!

As I pondered more on the subject it is clear that women are co-creators with God to bring forth his plan of salvation. The notion suggests that the creation did not end with Adam and Eve, the creation is an ongoing process. Just as the miracle of the breath of life, the conception of a child within a mother’s womb is of the same.

And thus, we witness the miracle of the breath of life every single day. Only this time, a woman is carrying out the miracle..., the CREATION!

Her very being and fiber commands to nature, her very breath is the miracle we so often miss and take for granted, simply because we don’t have eyes to see how she is so in sync with the heavens. Into her body are woven the powers that some of us men so desperately mistaken that it is only ours to partake.

Having that knowledge and comparing that with a man who has to use a physical matter (oil) and utter a memorized few words in order to command the powers of heaven, really makes me wonder if I were to have a choice, which of the two would I have chosen.

Therefore, given that the priesthood is not a physical force that our eyes can see, if we, husbands, want to know what the priesthood looks like, I suggest we go home and look at our wives!

I am so very grateful for the women in my life! To my daughters, wife, sisters, mother, and grandmothers. For their undying love, teachings, examples, and above all, their nature, which blesses me every single day and are a beacon to my life.