Quotes from Sheri Dew's New Book

I have been listening to Sheri Dew's new book called, "Women and the Priesthood".  Normally, I would not read a book with such a title because I feel have a good grasp on women's roles and priesthood in the church.  But it had such good reviews that I decided to get it.

I really like Sheri Dew.  I don't want to put myself in the same category as her but she and I do share some commonalities.  We are both spinsters.  :-) She is also very bold like me.  At least I like to think I am :-).  Anyway, she did a really good job in writing this book.  I would suggest it to anyone.  Not just women.

There are a few quotes or thoughts I would like to share from the book.

I can't remember who the quote was from but I think it was a former General Relief Society President.  Anyway it went something like this: "we are in the business of salvation, not entertainment."  That is not a direct quote by any means but that was the gist of it.

I like that quote because I often hear people say that church is boring.  Church isn't for entertainment purposes.  The church is there for our benefit to help us on our journey towards personal salvation and exaltation.

The next quote I really identified with because once again, Sister Dew and I are both spinsters.  She was talking about motherhood.  She said that motherhood does not begin with giving birth in mortality.  But that as women we were foreordained to be mothers in our pre-earth life.  The qualities of motherhood are innate in all women even those who do not become mothers in mortality.

Speaking of mothers who work outside the home, Sister Dew said that we shouldn't judge them because we don't know their circumstances. and we are all going to be accountable to the Lord for what we do.

we can generalize this quote to not judging anybody, for whatever reason, because we don't know their circumstances and it is not our place to judge others, that is up to the Lord.

A story that stuck out to me was when she told about receiving the impression that she has the TV on too much.  She said her original reaction, she was ashamed to say, was defensiveness.  She said she thought that she didn't have the TV on very much at all and if she did it was mostly background noise.  But then she humbled herself and decided to watch General conference instead of TV when she was getting ready in the mornings.  She said the difference was very noticeable in the effect it had on her.

The interesting thing that she mentioned about that was that she said she wasn't allowing Satan's influence in her home through TV.  That's something I've noticed, even if you're watching a supposedly benign educational program, the commercials are often times shockingly evil.  And at very best are mindnumbing.

Music is the same way -- even more so I believe -- the type of music you listen to is very influential for bad or good.  I can hear a song I haven't heard in decades and it will bring back a flood of memories and often times I'll remember the lyrics and tune like it was yesterday.  Music is extremely powerful.

okay one more story from the book -- Sister Dew was on an airplane and the lady next to her introduced herself as a member of the church.  Her seatmate told her that while she was waiting in the airport a couple of famous rappers struck up a conversation with her.  As they were bragging about how famous they were and how influential they were in getting kids involved with drugs and sex, this righteous LDS mother was getting mad but trying to be polite.  Finally she said her mother bear instincts kicked in and she told the rappers that they had been upfront with her so she was going to be upfront with them and told them she has spent her whole life trying to protect children from people like them.

I don't think I would have been as eloquent or polite in my response.  :-)

Anyway I'm sure I could think of several more quotes or stories but this is already getting long. I just thought I would share some of the quotes and stories I remember with you.

Sheri Dew is a great author and wonderful example to follow.  Her new book is wonderfully written and contains many quotes from prophets and apostles.  I highly recommend it to everyone.

That's my two cents.