I have been a member of the LDS church my whole life. I have worshiped with my fellow saints in many places in the U.S. and in parts of Europe. My spiritual lineage is rich with faithful men and women who serve God and their fellow humankind. I feel the love of God for all creation as I seek to serve and bless others.
Motherhood changed me in ways I could not predict. I came to understand the joy and pain of carrying and bearing a child, the indignities of morning sickness and stretch marks, the vast sea of exhaustion. Now perhaps most of all, I understand the love and exasperation of caring for an active and keenly curious little boy.
I will always remember the experience of sitting as a mute observer while my husband joined with other men to bless our son. Many of the men in the circle were strangers to my son until moments before the blessing. My heart ached to join in blessing the little person I had carried within me until so recently, to stand shoulder to shoulder with my husband. Together and in partnership with God, we co-created this beautiful child. To stand with my husband and present our son before God and fellow saints, to demonstrate our willingness to teach and serve and care for the life with which we were entrusted—this would be a gift beyond compare.
I cannot separate motherhood from a desire for ordination. The two inform each other. It is patterned after the divinity of our Heavenly Parents—priest and priestess, the Father and the Mother. Their perfect example teaches me that ordaining women is about partnership between men and women, to join forces to “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.”
In my sisters’ faces, I see the face of God. I believe women should be ordained.