A Different Perspective Offered in Conference

As I was listening to Elder Nelson's talk "A Plea to My Sisters," I picked up on some words that I don't normally hear in talks addressed to women. He basically tells women that they need to be more involved in church affairs. I decided to chart the verbs I heard into a chart formatted like the chart I used in a previous post. (This post won't make any sense if you don't read that last post.)

Review of last chart to compare to new chart:

New chart based on Elder Nelson's talk:

More Explanation that I Forgot to Include at the Bottom: I included words that were used to describe specific women in his talk as well as words directed toward women in general. The words that are larger than other words were magnified based on how many times those words were used. "Speak," for example, was used six times in the talk while "Make" was used twice. Some of the words I used were actually adjectives transformed into verbs, but I tried my best not to change the intended meaning. 

After I finished making the chart, I was surprised by the number of directive words--fifteen if you don't count the words that were repeated. Following comes in last with eight words (also not counting the words that were repeated). In this talk--and possibly others that I have not even looked at--women are to assume a directive and guiding role in the church and in general.

I wanted to make a similar chart with all of the adjectives he used to describe women (and to categorize the words based on the the spirit behind the description (so an even more subjective grouping of words) where a word like "strong" would have the spirit of directing style and "devoted" would have the spirit of following style) but I felt like I should post this with just the one table before I was done exploring the topic.

It's nice to have some evidence to counter my original assumption that women in the church are supposed assume a following role in their lives. While there is still room for questions (and there always is), it is reassuring to hear a talk that urges women to direct and guide.

The best line of the talk came at the end:

"And as one of His Apostles, I thank you, my dear sisters, and bless you to rise to your full stature, to fulfill the measure of your creation, as we walk arm in arm in this sacred work. Together we will help prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord. Of this I testify, as your brother, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

:)