Testing the words of LDS leaders with Biblical Truth:
February 2010
Young Women Manual 2
OBJECTIVE: Each young woman will strive to create a home environment where the Spirit of the Lord can dwell.
* A Clean and Orderly House Invites the Spirit of the Lord? (pages 18-20):
Have the class members discuss why our temples are kept so clean and beautiful. Ask the young women to locate and read Doctrine and Covenants 132:8. [Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.] Then discuss the following questions:
• Why does the Lord require his house to be one of order?
• How can beauty and cleanliness add to order in the Lord’s house?
• How do you think the Lord’s instructions on order could apply to our homes as well as to temples? Have the young women turn to and read the following scriptures: Moses 3:15; Doctrine and Covenants 90:18; [Set in order your houses; keep slothfulness and uncleanness far from you.] and Doctrine and Covenants 42:41. [And let all things be done in cleanliness before me.]
Discuss what these scriptures teach us about order and cleanliness in and around a person’s home. Explain that order is essential in the heavens; otherwise, chaos would rule. Order is just as essential in our homes.
Activity: Hand out slips of paper or index cards and pencils. Suggest that most of us have problems keeping things clean, repaired, orderly, and uncluttered. Have the young women identify something in their own areas of responsibility that needs to be more clean and orderly and write it on the card. Suggest that they also write down several ideas that will help them improve in this area of their lives.
Emphasize the importance of putting resolves into action by reading the following quotation by Elder Delbert L. Stapley on forming good habits. “Good habits are not acquired simply by making good resolves, though the thought must precede the action. Good habits are developed in the workshop of our daily lives. It is not in the great moments of test and trial that character is built. That is only when it is displayed. The habits that direct our lives and form our character are fashioned in the often uneventful, commonplace routine of life. They are acquired by practice”..
Teacher presentation: Explain that if we make our dwellings clean and orderly, the Spirit of the Lord and our family members will want to be there. Each young woman can feel great satisfaction and accomplishment if she practices good homemaking habits now. She should develop skills and habits that will enable her to maintain an orderly home throughout her life. A Young Woman Blesses Others As She Cheerfully Practices Her Homemaking Role
Conclusion: Point out that a spiritual atmosphere is a key ingredient in a happy home. Each young woman can positively influence the spirituality in her present home. As a young woman develops and enjoys her homemaking opportunities, she invites the Spirit of the Lord to dwell within the home.
Test these LDS Words with Biblical Truth:
When I first read this lesson, I could not believe my eyes. But after I thought about it, I realized how the “hidden messages” in this Lesson are the same messages that I was taught as a Young Woman. These messages have deeply influenced my life. In subtle little ways, LDS women are taught that their image–the image that they portray to the world, is what really matters. The words from this Lesson that these tender Young Women are being taught makes my heart cry out for them! Trust me–my God, the God of this universe, would never say: “if we make our dwellings clean and orderly, the Spirit of the Lord and our family members will want to be there“. My hearts desire is to share with each one of them the truth!!! The Holy Spirit is the power of God and through it, women have as much authority and power to act in God’s name as men do. Through faith, the Holy Spirit will dwell in your heart and your house as well–in spite of how beautiful and clean you keep your house.
The saddest thing I discovered about this lesson came when I compared what was being taught to the Young Men with the Young Women. The Young men start their first lesson being told that they can be a god! They are told in the second lesson that they have a power that no other group on earth possesses: not their mothers, their sisters or any non-member male. The Young women are taught things like drawing closer to the Savior and keeping a clean and orderly house. Lesson six they learn that they are to share the work in the home; lesson seven to live in love and harmony and lesson eight to improve their communication skills.
Just looking at the differences between what is being taught to these young men and women gave me a little insight as to my own feelings of inadequacy in growing up in the Church. It helped me to understand my mothers obsession with portraying the image of a “perfect” family. It helped me to have a little more compassion for many of the arrogant Mormon men that I have known. It strengthened my desire to reach out to LDS women who don’t know the true Savior–that God accepts and loves them exactly as they are–that they have been washed clean by the blood of the lamb.
Please, read this Post: “General Conference: To the Women of the Church from the Prophet” written November 21, 2008; or, Click here:
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