sisters.

So, I've been meaning to write this blog post for months. But, seeing that this semester has been absolutely insane, I'm finally sitting down to write it. Consider it my take on the General Women's Meeting and preparation for General Conference.

Also, you should check out Em's blog about this same topic. Because she is wonderfully articulate and because her blog is much prettier than mine.

This semester I've had the wonderful opportunity of taking a Mormon Women's History class. It's been a powerful experience for me. There really is such a need for us--all of us--to understand our past. Understanding our history gives us a sense of purpose and identity. It strengthens us and helps us know who we are and what we're capable of.

That's what learning about Mormon women has done for me. It helps me realize just how rich our past is, and the incredible examples of strength and faithfulness I can draw on--whether they were born in 1890 or 1991. There is power in agency--in making those choices to believe and to act according to those beliefs every day. There is beauty in the fact that women like Emmeline B. Wells, Eliza R. Snow, Hannah Tapfield King, Patty Bartlett Sessions and thousands more like them lived. They lived, loved, and strove to keep the covenants which they had made with God.

And that is what connects me to these women the most--that I have made those same covenants with God and that I am striving to keep them.

I appreciated the emphasis in the General Women's Meeting about focusing on covenant-making and covenant-keeping. Because that's what it's all about, isn't it? It is in making these covenants that we see the power of God in our lives and that we realize who we truly are. Making and keeping our covenants with God so that we can learn to live as He does and become like Him. This is because keeping covenants is not only doing what we know we should, but it is a process of becoming.

Mormon women are covenant-keeping women. There is strength, safety, and power found in making and keeping covenants with God. There's not just one way to be a Mormon woman. We are all different and come from different walks of life and have different desires, hopes, and dreams. There is beauty in that diversity. We are all going to have different journeys in life and we are going to disagree about politics, how to raise children, and favorite ice cream flavors. But, what can and should unite us is that we have made covenants with God and we are striving to keep them.

Striving to keep our covenants means that we choose every day to mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and stand as a witness of God at all times, things, and places. We strive to be an example of the believers. We try every day to be like Jesus--we choose a disciple's life, knowing that choosing to be a disciple is not an easy path.

And we help each other to keep the covenants we have all made.

It is in making and keeping those covenants which connects us all. That is what unites us as sisters throughout the world and throughout history. There is no need for division--whether single, married, divorced, working, in-school, black, white, young, or old.

Because the heart of the matter is we are all sisters.

Sisters keeping covenants.