Gender

ALL HUMAN BEINGS—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.

-The family: A Proclamation to the World

https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng 

Gender is an essential characteristic of individual pre-mortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.... that's a pretty bold statement. But this week in class we have been discussing gender, why its important, and what happens when we mess with it. 

We had a really long discussion on the LGBTQ community. But that is not what i want to discuss. I want to talk about a question we were asked in one of our preparation assignment. We were asked the following:

How are my family experiences and expectations influenced my by gender? And how would those be different if my gender were different?

I had never considered this before. I had never thought about how my gender has affected my family. So i invite you all to contemplate this question in your own life. 

As i thought about this question i realized that my gender has influenced my family a lot. In my family it is usually the women who help take care of the children. I am the youngest in my family and i fall right under 3 boys. As my older siblings got married and had children it was my duty to help tend these children at family get togethers. Had i been a boy, there wouldn't have been someone to do that. I know that doesn't sound like a  big deal. Your probably thinking "isn't that the parents responsibility to take care of their own kids?" Yes. yes it is. But sometimes parents need help. and because of the way my family is set up, there wouldn't have been someone to help, had i been a boy. 

Also, i think of how much i helped growing up with the cooking and the cleaning. My mother needed help with that. The boys were in charge of helping with more physical tasks like mowing the lawn, and helping with big projects around the house. And it was my responsibility to help with the little but necessary things. My mom needed a girl at the end of the line of kids to continue to help her.  

You are probably thinking to yourself "wow, her family is very sexist. Cant the boys help with the cooking and the cleaning and the girls with the yard work?" and again yes. Yes we could have. And sometimes we did. But our family dynamic was very traditional. And we were all okay with that. But we never looked at families who did things differently and looked down upon them. 

I loved the chance to reflect on why my gender was and IS important. If i wasn't a girl i would be accomplishing different things. Not bad things or wrong things, but different things. I believe that i am a girl, because God created, and designed me to be one. He has a purpose for me on this earth and in order for me to fulfill that purpose i need to be ME. 

So i challenge you to reflect why you are who you are. And thank God for making you that way!