Finding Joy in the Savior’s Plan

By Wilma Gardner

In September 1975, just after the United Nations declaration of a decade for women, a reporter was interviewing me about Latter-day Saint women. “Can you hold the priesthood?” she asked. “Do you feel Mormon women need to be liberated?” I was confused, awkward, and unsure of my answers. After she left I thought about the questions she asked and decided to find answers for myself.

Today I wish I could speak with that reporter again. I would like to tell her that I know the gospel is true and that joy comes from following a plan where women and men have unique responsibilities. Married or single, rich or poor, in the marketplace or at home, a woman finds joy by following the Lord’s commandments and bringing refinement and beauty into the world. Knowing this is true, why should we heedlessly try to follow the teachings of men?

President Kimball said, “Let us get our instruments tightly strung and our melodies sweetly sung. Let us not die with our music still in us. Let us rather use this precious mortal time to move confidently and gloriously upward toward the eternal life which God our Father gives to those who keep his commandments.” (A Woman’s Choices, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1984, p. 97.)

No matter what our situation in life, we are a means for bringing beauty into this world. We must learn to sing our own song while life lasts, not let others control the music of our lives or cover it up with unpleasant noise.

We need not search for a woman’s place; we need only search for the Savior. He it is who will show us the vision of our potential and help us find the joy that comes from being virtuous women.