Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters - by President Spencer W. Kimball

I was looking for a little spiritual lift on LDS.org and came across this talk, Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters, given by President Spencer W. Kimball in a women's fireside in 1978. It is amazing that 30 years later this talk seems so applicable to me. I had not even been born yet at the time this was given yet I feel like it is so relevant to me today. Here are a couple of my favorite parts for you to be spiritually lifted also:

"Attend to your personal and family prayers and family devotions. Keep the Sabbath day holy in thought and deed. Live strictly the Word of Wisdom. Attend to all family duties. Keep your life clean and free from all unholy and impure thoughts and actions. Cultivate those associations and activities which will not threaten and lower your high, righteous standards. Study the scriptures. Thus you may gain strength through the understanding of eternal things. You young women need this close relationship with the mind and will of our Eternal Father."

"Be so absorbed with uplifting, enriching pursuits and pastimes that you leave no room for the negative or the evil that might move in to fill some bored or thoughtless void."

"In selecting one’s companion for life and for eternity, certainly the most careful planning and thinking and praying and fasting should be done to be sure that of all the decisions, this one is not wrong. In a true marriage there must be a union of minds as well as of hearts. Emotions must not wholly determine decisions, but the mind and the heart, strengthened by fasting and prayer and serious consideration, will give one a maximum chance of marital happiness. ...True marriage is based on happiness that is more than that, one that comes from giving, serving, sharing, sacrificing, and selflessness."

"Young women should plan and prepare for marriage and the bearing and rearing of children. It is your divine right and the avenue to the greatest and most supreme happiness. You should also make choices looking forward to productive use of your time once the children are grown and gone from under your wing. You should seek for ways to bless the lives of all with whom you associate. You should know the truth of all things. You should be prepared to help build the kingdom of God."

"Each of you should be grateful to be a woman! ...To be a righteous woman is a glorious thing in any age. To be a righteous woman during the winding up scenes on this earth, before the second coming of our Savior, is an especially noble calling. The righteous woman’s strength and influence today can be tenfold what it might be in more tranquil times. She has been placed here to help, to enrich, to protect, and to guard the home—which is society’s basic and most noble institution. Other institutions in society may falter and even fail, but the righteous woman can help to save the home, which may be the last and only sanctuary some mortals know in the midst of storm and strife."

"We encourage the sisters of the Church—young and older—to be “anxiously engaged” in quiet acts of service for friends and neighbors."

"Home is a place for all that is good and enlightening and true. It should provide a climate for constant growth and learning for all who live there—father, mother, and children."

I hope your spirit feels a little lighter as mine did after reading these things. :)