Women In the Scriptures

Dear Sherrie – I promised you that I was going to reply to the comment you left on my blog with an additional posting. There was too much that I wanted to say. I couldn't seem to condense my thoughts into a brief comment.

You shared with me the ninth article of faith and your belief that God will continue to reveal things. I share that belief with you. I recently wrote a post on the ninth article of faith. In that post I tried to express that I think the way we can be ready for new revelation and stay faithful to the old  is to have our minds and hearts filled with things God is currently revealing and comforted by things that he revealed in days that are past. I think it is vital that we feel the Holy Ghost every day.

I also wanted to share some thoughts that I had about your comment about women and the Scriptures. You shared your perspective that women have been "whitewashed from the Scriptures." I wasn't exactly sure what you meant by the term whitewashed. You may feel that women’s  stories were once there, but have been removed by people who didn't want them there. Or you may feel simply disappointed that there aren't more stories of the lives of women that we can feast upon.

There was a time in my life that I too was disturbed by the fact that there were so few stories of women in the Scriptures. At this time I had a conversation with a family member that helped me. I shared my concern with him and then he asked me some questions that helped me to further understand myself. He asked, "Do you feel the Holy Ghost when you read the Scriptures and get revelation for your life?" I responded that I did. Then he asked, "Do you feel that you can apply the Scriptures to your life regardless of the gender of the person in the stories or who is teaching the doctrines?"  I responded that I did. Then he asked, "Why do you care about how many stories are about men then?"

As I thought about that question I realized it was because I wondered if God loved women as much as men if they were not equally represented in the Scriptures. Because we weren’t equally represented, I wondered if He really considered us equal.  That was my true concern. I got a lot out of the Scriptures. Plenty. My real concern wasn't about the amount of airtime women got in the Scriptures. My question was did God see me as equally important as a man and of equal value.

That little conversation was a piece of  the revelation that I earnestly yearned for.

The interesting thing to me is that I  regard the Scriptures very differently in my life now than I did then. I don't feel like the Scriptures are whitewashed of women.  I can't get away from reading about women. I just finished reading the writings of Isaiah. It seemed that every chapter had references to women, counsel specific to women, feminine imagery, and validation for the typical life of a woman.

Before studying the writings of Isaiah I was reading The New Testament record of the apostles establishing the Church after Jesus Christ's atonement. I saw so many pieces that I had never seen before about the role of women within that church. I understood Paul's writings in a way that I had never before. Again it seemed like every chapter I was learning more about women.

In the past year I've done a lot of topical study about Adam and Eve and the choices made in the garden of Eden. I learned so much about women’s essential role in God’s plan.

I am so deeply grateful to be able to feel the spirit as I read the Scriptures and I treasure the revelation I receive through the gentle teaching of the Holy Ghost. So, I don't want to sound ungrateful, but sometimes I think, "Enough about the women already. I'm done thinking about that." Apparently, I am not. I still have much more to learn, and for some reason God wants to teach me about it.

Do I find women in the Scriptures because I am seeing references I never saw before? Is it because I  have studied more and know the scriptures better?  Or am I finding them because God is speaking to me about women as I read scriptures? Is it because the scriptures are living and reading them can be a conversation with God about the subjects He wishes to teach us about?  Probably all these answers are true.

I simply wanted to share my perspective and how it has changed over the years.  I love you, Sherrie.