PRIESTHOOD HELPMEETS

During my life I have gone from being a determined goal setter, to being a casual goal setter and finally arriving at the blissful non goal setting stage of my life.

Some years ago, maybe in the year 1962 when I was still a determined goal setter, I set the lofty goal of earning a Doctorate degree. The goal was lofty since my pre mission college experience was far from stellar. In fact, because of my total lack of dedication to being anything near a student I was barely able to recover my grade point average just in time to qualify to enter the program for my masters degree.

The reasons for my effectiveness as a student are not difficult to understand. Serving a mission in Northern Mexico had changed my attitude about the process of study from negative to positive, but the main reason the results in my classes went from ‘unauthorized withdrawal’, C’s and an occasional A in such non academic classes as volleyball to multiple A’s, is that Kathleen N. Wootton agreed to become my eternal companion.

From 1962 – 1977 while she was giving birth to 6 children, taking on the major part of caring and nurturing them, moving eight different times and going through a major social economic shift when I changed from being a journeyman lather to a full time CES seminary teacher and Institute teacher/director, she managed to help me acquire bachelors, masters and doctors degrees from Brigham Young University. The word help is very inadequate in describing the contributions she made to the obtaining of those degrees. I would have to make this a two part Thought if I were to attempt to exhaust the list of the ways she supported these achievements while working on her own goals.

These background paragraphs are necessary if you are going to understand what verses 1 – 9 of chapter 13 of the Book of Alma mean to me personally and hopefully will give the readers something to ponder on this Sabbath Day.

And again, my brethren, I would cite your minds forward to the time when the Lord God gave these commandments unto his children; and I would that ye should remember that the Lord God ordained priests, after his holy order, which was after the order of his Son, to teach these things unto the people. And those priests were ordained after the order of his Son, in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption.

And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such.

And thus they have been called to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great privilege as their brethren. Or in fine, in the first place they were on the same standing with their brethren; thus this holy calling being prepared from the foundation of the world for such as would not harden their hearts, being in and through the atonement of the Only Begotten Son, who was prepared—And thus being called by this holy calling, and ordained unto the high priesthood of the holy order of God, to teach his commandments unto the children of men, that they also might enter into his rest—This high priesthood being after the order of his Son, which order was from the foundation of the world; or in other words, being without beginning of days or end of years, being prepared from eternity to all eternity, according to his foreknowledge of all things—Now they were ordained after this manner—being called with a holy calling, and ordained with a holy ordinance, and taking upon them the high priesthood of the holy order, which calling, and ordinance, and high priesthood, is without beginning or end—Thus they become high priests forever, after the order of the Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, who is without beginning of days or end of years, who is full of grace, equity, and truth. And thus it is. Amen.

If you understood the extreme change which I underwent concerning goal setting, you will not be surprised as I attempt to explain the profound difference my understanding of priesthood is as I begin my ninth decade of mortality from what it was when I was ordained a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood.

I don’t think it would be all that beneficial to reveal the understandings I had as a 12 year old boy, so I will spend the remainder of this Thought trying to manifest where I am today in my understanding of what priesthood is.

I beg your forgiveness if I seem to ramble as I present the following concepts.

I know there was a reason Alma spoke the words he did, at the time he spoke them, and to the audience he was addressing, but the blaring absence of any mention of women while talking about the principle of foreordained eternal priesthood and the significance of them pertaining to mortals would be as much of a glaring misrepresentation as if I were to try to convince someone that I achieved those college degrees without the support and aid of Kathleen.

When Adam and Eve were sealed by Heavenly Father in the Garden of Eden, He pronounced Eve to be the helpmeet of Adam. He could have just as easily pronounced Adam to be the helpmeet of Eve, because the original meaning of the word was ‘the other half of a whole’. From the very beginning both Eve and Adam were given the understanding that neither could become complete nor perfect without the other.

Paul declared that ‘neither was the man without the women, nor the women without the man in the resurrection’. One of the reasons the sacred name Elohim is expressed in the plural rather than the singular Eli, is that the revealed word teaches us that Heavenly Father cannot be God without Heavenly Mother, nor can Heavenly Mother be God without Heavenly Father. We revere our Eternal Mother and desire to honor Her, but because we do not want Her name to be made common among the children of men in the same way other references to Deity have been made ordinary, we obediently refrain from addressing Her directly or singularly. During the latter days of my mortality I seldom think or refer to my Heavenly Father without thinking of my Heavenly Mother.

One of the joys of continued revelation is that of late we have been instructed regarding the difference between priesthood offices and priesthood power. All covenant keeping persons as well as all who have faith have access to the power referred to as priesthood. Since God is not an author of confusion He has instituted a system of order in His Kingdom. There are men and women who are set apart to do the ordinances of salvation. There are men and women who hold the offices of presidencies. There are some offices which are reserved for women and some offices which are reserved for men. There are some offices which can only be participated in when both a man and a women hold them jointly. We have been further instructed that priesthood power is dependent on worthiness and faithfulness, while offices need to be conferred upon a person.

Although with little effort I could continue to ramble about where my understanding of priesthood is at this time in my life, I am pretty sure I have provided enough to stimulate at least a little pondering for this Sabbath day. Besides, with the rapidity which the Living Prophet is revealing the mind and will of the Lord to us in these latter, latter days our understanding about the priesthood of Elohim will probably shortly be expanding.


THOUGHTS FOR A SABBATH DAY – WILLIAM L. RILEY

EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY

PEACE + JOY + LOVE + FAITH + HOPE + CHARITY = THE GOOD LIFE