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The teachings, stories, and examples in the
book can guide sisters in establishing priorities
and practices in their lives that will help them
increase faith and personal righteousness,
strengthen families and homes, and seek out
and help those in need.
Sister Belle S. Spafford, the ninth Relief
Society general president, said: “The average
woman today, I believe, would do well to
appraise her interests, evaluate the activities in
which she is engaged, and then take steps to
simplify her life, putting things of first importance
first, placing emphasis where the rewards
will be greatest and most enduring, and ridding
herself of the less rewarding activities.”
Female Disciples in
the New Testament
While little is known about a formal organization
of women in the New Testament,
evidence suggests that women were vital
participants in the Savior’s ministry. The New
Testament includes accounts of women, named
and unnamed, who exercised faith in Jesus
Christ, learned and lived His teachings, and
testified of His ministry, miracles, and majesty.
These women became exemplary disciples and
important witnesses in the work of salvation.
Women journeyed with Jesus and His Twelve
Apostles. They gave of their substance to assist
in His ministry. After His death and Resurrection,
women continued to be faithful disciples.
They met and prayed together with the Apostles.
They provided their homes as gathering
places for Church members. They valiantly
participated in the work of saving souls, temporally
and spiritually.
Sister Zina D. H. Young was a loving, nurturing
mother, and she taught Relief Society
sisters the principles that guided her own
efforts at home. She counseled: “If there is one
mother present here who does not teach and
instruct her children properly, . . . I plead with
you to do so. Call your children around you
. . . and pray with them. . . . Warn the children
of the evils that surround us . . . that they may
not become a prey to these evils, but grow up
in holiness and in purity before the Lord.” 20
She also taught: “Be diligent in all the duties
of life, as mothers and wives. . . . Let us be
careful to speak with wisdom before our little
ones, avoiding fault-finding, . . . and cultivate
the higher attributes of our nature, that will
tend to elevate, refine and purify the heart. . . .
We should take the utmost pains to teach the
children of Zion to be honest, virtuous, upright
and punctual in all their duties; also to be
industrious and keep the Sabbath day holy. . . .
Mothers should never speak a word detrimental
to the father’s best interest before the
children, for they are close observers. Sow good
seeds in their young and tender minds, and
always prefer principle to policy, thus you will
lay up treasures in heaven.”
President Spencer W. Kimball, the twelfth
President of the Church, said, “There is a power
in this organization [of Relief Society] that
has not yet been fully exercised to strengthen
the homes of Zion and build the Kingdom of
God—nor will it until both the sisters and the
priesthood catch the vision of Relief Society.”
Why did the First Presidency choose to announce
the proclamation on the family in a
general Relief Society meeting? After President
Hinckley read it, he provided an answer to that
question. “You are the guardians of the hearth,”
he told the sisters. “You are the bearers of the
children. You are they who nurture them and establish
within them the habits of their lives. No other work
reaches so close to divinity as does the nurturing of the
sons and daughters of God.”
President James E. Faust, President Hinckley’s second
counselor, added the following explanation: “Because
you mothers are the heart and soul of any family, it was
appropriate that it [the proclamation] was first read in
the general Relief Society meeting.”
