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Saturday, May 31, 2014

Gospel Doctrine OT c20: Virtuous Women


Gospel Doctrine OT c20 Virtuous Women
Ruth; 1 Samuel 1
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Visiting RS with mom, teacher had every one stand then said, “If your life has turned out how you planned and you haven’t had disappointment, stay standing. If your life is not how you had envisioned it, sit down. I sat. I wasn’t married, called off an engagement, didn’t have my degree yet, or a car. I looked around and saw two newly wed girls, probably 4 or 5 years younger than me, standing confidently, even proudly. I sank deeper into my chair and my disappointment. Just give them time, I thought. Life doesn’t always turn out how we planned.

This lesson is about some women who dealt with challenges that were not part of how they would have designed their lives if it were up to them.

“And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
“And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman” (Gen. 2:20–23).
And so Eve became God’s final creation, the grand summation of all of the marvelous work that had gone before.
Notwithstanding this preeminence given the creation of woman, she has so frequently through the ages been relegated to a secondary position. She has been put down. She has been denigrated. She has been enslaved. She has been abused. And yet some few of the greatest characters of scripture have been women of integrity, accomplishment, and faith.
Pres. Hinckley, “The Women In Our Lives” Gen Conf Oct 2004


Start with Naomi and Ruth.
Ruth married the son of Naomi and converted to the gospel of Israel.
?What impact or difference did her conversion make in her life?
?How does our personal conversion impact us?
Mosiah 5:7-8
Ruth 1:16
What did Ruth give up by going to Bethlehem with Naomi? What did Ruth gain by going with Naomi? What can we learn from Ruth about making sacrifices for the gospel? PUT GOD FIRST. BE TRUE TO COVENANTS.

What became of Ruth’s courage to be true to her conversion and faith? (She married Boaz and had a son which was the line of Jesus Christ. Ruth 4:17).
“Now that was a kind of a prophecy which is very important to us. In a culture hostile to the leadership of women, these women—Naomi and Ruth—lived to bring about an end the scripture’s writer carefully emphasizes: Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David, through whose lines, which are carefully detailed for us in the first chapter of Matthew, came Jesus who is called Christ….
 Ruth confidently met hardships not uncommon in our time—the death of a loved one, loneliness in a new place, and the need to work hard for her bread. Her small efforts, linked significantly to a later great event, tell me that each of us can take seriously the importance of our daily lives and decisions as we choose to follow God.” (Aileen Clyde, “Confidence Through Conversion” Gen Conf Oct 1992.)
Think about the influence of Ruth’s conversion and faith on generations to come…
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Next is Hannah, mother of Samuel.
Hannah’s testimony reaches across dispensations to our time, and her story is an invitation to apply the same principles of righteousness. Through doing so we, too, might rejoice in the Lord as we experience his innumerable blessings in our lives.
?What principles of righteousness do we learn from Hannah?
PUT GOD FIRST. BE TRUE TO COVENANTS.
We are not excused from honoring our covenants in even the most trying situations; however, we are promised that a way will always be provided for us to fulfill the Lord’s commandments (see 1 Ne. 3:7). The scriptures declare, “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will … make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). In fact, the weaknesses we feel during affliction are designed to bring us to the Lord. By turning to him, we can receive power to endure each trial, and our weaknesses can thereby become strengths (see Ether 12:27).
Linda M. Campbell, “Hannah: Devoted Handmaid of the Lord”, March 1998 Ensign
Bible dictionary says, “after Eli’s death he became the great prophet and judge of Israel
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So there are two righteous women. They were not prophetesses. They were not leaders. They were good women just like us.
?What are you doing that is influencing your family and the world around you?

My plea to women and girls today is to protect and cultivate the moral force that is within you. Preserve that innate virtue and the unique gifts you bring with you into the world. Your intuition is to do good and to be good, and as you follow the Holy Spirit, your moral authority and influence will grow. To the young women I say, don’t lose that moral force even before you have it in full measure. Take particular care that your language is clean, not coarse; that your dress reflects modesty, not vanity; and that your conduct manifests purity, not promiscuity. You cannot lift others to virtue on the one hand if you are entertaining vice on the other.
Sisters, of all your associations, it is your relationship with God, your Heavenly Father, who is the source of your moral power, that you must always put first in your life. Remember that Jesus’s power came through His single-minded devotion to the will of the Father. He never varied from that which pleased His Father.11 Strive to be that kind of disciple of the Father and the Son, and your influence will never fade.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson, “The Moral Force of Women” Gen Conf Oct 2013
PUT GOD FIRST. STAY TRUE TO COVENANTS.

SUPPORTING QUOTES AND TALKS:
in our premortal life we exercised our agency when we chose Christ as our leader. He does his part and each of us can do ours to make covenants and build a partnership with him. How that happens is described by King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon:

“And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.
“And under this head ye are made free, and there is no other head whereby ye can be made free. There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives.” (Mosiah 5:7–8.)
When we are converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ we become both humble and courageous. Our conversion strengthens us greatly in our decision making. A good example of the kinds of real circumstances good people face in this life can be found in the Old Testament in the very short, five-page book of Ruth. Each time I read it I see something new. Lately I have been thinking of it as a story of conversion, of courage and decision making. It is about another time, another culture, yet it is about us too.
Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, and their two sons had gone into the enemy country of Moab because there was a great famine in Israel, their home. In due time their sons married Moabite wives, named Orpah and Ruth. Then in a ten-year period, the father and the two sons died. Naomi had heard that the famine had lifted in Judah, and she wanted to return to her people. She counsels her daughters-in-law to return to their mothers’ homes. Naomi called them her daughters and kissed them, and they wept with their love for her. (Now isn’t that quite remarkable? I fail to understand how this clear and well-known record hasn’t had more influence on all the unfunny mother-in-law jokes that abound in the world.) But eventually Orpah decides to stay in Moab, and again Naomi says to Ruth, “Behold, thy sister in law has gone back to her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.” (Ruth 1:15.)
At this point, in majestic Hebraic poetry, Ruth announces her decision and confirms her conversion. “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” (Ruth 1:16.)
When Naomi, herself realistic and wise, saw Ruth’s steadfastness, she “left off speaking to her” (see Ruth 1:18), which does not mean she stopped talking with her, but that she quit trying to convince her of the difficulties she would face in Israel. Ruth, the Moabitess, would face bigotry, poverty, and much insecurity, but she was converted, and she had decided. She and Naomi became a great team, facing together not only the problems before them, but the opportunities that would come also.
In time, Ruth married Boaz, and a child was born to them. “And the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord … for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born [a child].
“And Naomi took the child … and became nurse unto it.
“And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.” (Ruth 4:14–17.)
Now that was a kind of a prophecy which is very important to us. In a culture hostile to the leadership of women, these women—Naomi and Ruth—lived to bring about an end the scripture’s writer carefully emphasizes: Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David, through whose lines, which are carefully detailed for us in the first chapter of Matthew, came Jesus who is called Christ. Would you ever have expected the small book of Ruth to foretell such a great event?
Ruth confidently met hardships not uncommon in our time—the death of a loved one, loneliness in a new place, and the need to work hard for her bread. Her small efforts, linked significantly to a later great event, tell me that each of us can take seriously the importance of our daily lives and decisions as we choose to follow God
Aileen Clyde, Gen Conf Oct 1992, “Confidence Through Conversion”
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“And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
“And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman” (Gen. 2:20–23).
And so Eve became God’s final creation, the grand summation of all of the marvelous work that had gone before.
Notwithstanding this preeminence given the creation of woman, she has so frequently through the ages been relegated to a secondary position. She has been put down. She has been denigrated. She has been enslaved. She has been abused. And yet some few of the greatest characters of scripture have been women of integrity, accomplishment, and faith.
Pres. Hinckley, “The Women In Our Lives” Gen Conf Oct 2004
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Hannah’s testimony reaches across dispensations to our time, and her story is an invitation to apply the same principles of righteousness. Through doing so we, too, might rejoice in the Lord as we experience his innumerable blessings in our lives.
First, we must choose to abide by our covenants, whatever our circumstances, until the end of our mortal probation. Samuel the Lamanite explains this accountability by stating, “Ye are free … to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free … that ye might choose life or death” (Hel. 14:30–31).
We are not excused from honoring our covenants in even the most trying situations; however, we are promised that a way will always be provided for us to fulfill the Lord’s commandments (see 1 Ne. 3:7). The scriptures declare, “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will … make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). In fact, the weaknesses we feel during affliction are designed to bring us to the Lord. By turning to him, we can receive power to endure each trial, and our weaknesses can thereby become strengths (see Ether 12:27).
Linda M. Campbell, “Hannah: Devoted Handmaid of the Lord”, March 1998 Ensign
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What I mean to say is that whether you are single or married, whether you have borne children or not, whether you are old, young, or in between, your moral authority is vital, and perhaps we have begun to take it and you for granted. Certainly there are trends and forces at work that would weaken and even eliminate your influence, to the great detriment of individuals, families, and society at large.
My plea to women and girls today is to protect and cultivate the moral force that is within you. Preserve that innate virtue and the unique gifts you bring with you into the world. Your intuition is to do good and to be good, and as you follow the Holy Spirit, your moral authority and influence will grow. To the young women I say, don’t lose that moral force even before you have it in full measure. Take particular care that your language is clean, not coarse; that your dress reflects modesty, not vanity; and that your conduct manifests purity, not promiscuity. You cannot lift others to virtue on the one hand if you are entertaining vice on the other.
Sisters, of all your associations, it is your relationship with God, your Heavenly Father, who is the source of your moral power, that you must always put first in your life. Remember that Jesus’s power came through His single-minded devotion to the will of the Father. He never varied from that which pleased His Father.11 Strive to be that kind of disciple of the Father and the Son, and your influence will never fade.

Dear sisters, we rely on the moral force you bring to the world, to marriage, to family, to the Church. We rely on blessings you bring down from heaven by your prayers and faith.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson, “The Moral Force of Women” Gen Conf Oct 2013



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