Divine Daughters Of God

So the past 2 weeks have been difficult and yet wonderful.  I have really felt close to my Savior, and to my family.  I have felt like recovery has been a huge part of my life.  It feels like progress but that does not mean that everything has been perfect.

This past Saturday, I was having a bit of a tough day.  I overslept and had to rush out the door to work.  I didn't get a shower and I didn't have time for morning study.  On top of that, Saturday is always a double for me at work.  In between my 2 shifts, I was home for a few minutes and I was a grump.  My wife recognized it and sent me a text asking what was going on.  Prior to her gentle nudge I hadn't even really recognized it myself, but I instantly knew.  I hadn't built up my armor to get me through the day and I was suffering as a result.

A bit later, I made time at work to do some study.  I said a silent prayer asking the Lord to soften my heart and help me release the stress I was feeling and to help me have a good outlook.  I then pulled out my phone opened the LDS Gospel Library App and silently asked to be guided to something that would change my attitude.  I found myself in the General Conference Section and ended up finding a talk given by President Hinckley in October of 2004.  It was titled The Women In Our Lives.  He talks extensively about the relationship with his wife, with his daughters and then spends some time talking about the divine nature of women in general.  One particular quote just grabbed my attention;

"And so Eve became God’s final creation, the grand summation of all of the marvelous work that had gone before".

I have read and studied the Creation story many times in my life, but never had I made that connection.  Eve, and womanhood in general, was not simply part of the Creation.  Rather, she was the crown jewel of the creative process.  As President Hinckley puts it; "the grand summation".  Given that these words come from a beloved Prophet of God, I think we can draw some rather simple conclusions about how much Heavenly Father loves his daughters.   How he views them and wants them to be treated.  

President Hinckley later shares that when we shatter their trust and hurt his daughters, we are directly hurting God through our actions; 

"Every woman is a daughter of God. You cannot offend her without offending Him".

As someone who struggles with addiction and lust, these words bored into my very soul.  To think that every woman who was ever objectified, lusted after, and degraded was a beautiful daughter of God and to imagine the pain this caused him to watch the crown jewel of his creation be treated this way.  It was a wake up call.  It was hard to read, but the Spirit testified to me of the truthfulness.   

President Hinckley does go on to give words of hope in his message.  He explains that relationships with those we have mistreated can be healed.  He speaks specifically to the marriage relationship but I think his words can apply to my relationship with any daughter of God that my actions or behavior has harmed or offended;

"The cure for most marital troubles does not lie in divorce. It lies in repentance and forgiveness, in expressions of kindness and concern. It is to be found in application of the Golden Rule".

Repentance, forgiveness and the Golden Rule. It starts with me. It starts with truly seeing women as daughters of God and treating them as such. Throughout the last few days as I encountered women in public, anytime I encountered a woman and my thoughts or actions were even remotely out of line I would whisper in my mind. "She is a daughter of God. See her as He sees her. See her divine potential, not her physical attributes." I was amazed when I did this how quickly my mindset changed. It was a small thing but one with the potential for great change.

Finally, today I had another 'ah-ha' moment that helped me to truly understand this concept. I keep a picture of my beautiful wife as the background image on my smart phone. It is a constant reminder to me of how lucky I am. From time to time I will change the picture to different image of her. My wife loves pictures so I am never lacking for good ones to choose from. So today, I began scrolling through my phone and the images she has uploaded to Facebook to find a new background for my phone. As I scrolled through I noticed something remarkable about all of her pictures. She was absolutely glowing.

Now part of this is because she is a very beautiful woman, but there was more to it. It was almost as if I could see into her very soul. In the moment I didn't really understand it but later as I was pondering it, I felt a prompting that I was seeing her true nature. This glow was her Spirit, her divine potential. She IS a daughter of God with the blessings, power and love that come along with it.

This is currently my favorite picture of her. She absolutely glows. It is beauty, but more importantly it is divinity. The same divinity that all women share as the crowning jewel of God's creation. It is high time I treated them as such.