My "Naughty" Eve

I so need to vent...... massively so and I doubt that many people read my blog from my ward so here it goes.

Delete next 10 paragraphs - thank-you Bishop H.


So, I am back...24 hours later and after a long talk with not only someone I consider a friend but who just happens to be my Bishop I am re-writing.

I'll start again. Yesterday we had the lesson in Sunday School about the three pillars of the gospel - the creation - the fall - and the atonement. It was a bizarre and trying lesson not for the gospel principles that were to be taught but because of the way and venue the teacher chose to go. Here comes all those years of abuse rearing it's ugly head again and yet, I am going to take a breath and not vent but refuel, and realize that one man's opinion is not the gospel truth, if he vere's off the curriculum that the church set out.

The Brother teaching the class decided to focus on Eve and her role in the fall and without getting into the dirty details, his words exactly were; "Eve was a very naughty girl". My new and ever so loving husband was with me, he held my hand and stroked my shoulder because he was aware of a very intricate part of my past that falls fully square on this exact principle and the way this teacher was presenting it.

Before my first marriage I was told that because of the fact that as I was a daughter of Eve and in consideration of her role in the garden that I was in no way a equal to any man as a descendant of Adam, any righteous man for that matter. Even as I write it, I know how ridiculous this is but you have to understand I was young and naive and this was a returned missionary; the man I thought loved, teaching me what he still truly believes. He asked me to take heade to the temple endowment as I went through for my first time and to notice Eve's transgression and to realize that because of it, all man fell into sin. It was Eve's fault and because of it, women would never be equal to men.

I could go into more detail but it's the past I have strongly worked at leaving that behind me. As the Sunday school teacher went into his complete and utter tangent all of my past seethed and the hurt resurfaced.

I know that what this man was teaching was incorrect, I sat and listened and heard, as many others in the room tried to reason that calling Eve 'naughty" was maybe inappropriate and they were dismissed. It was like post traumatic stress disorder and I counted and I breathed and I was held by my new loving and compassionate husband I doubt anyone in that room except those who truly knew what we went through as a family could have understood my dilemma. Do I get angry? Do I say something? What do I do; what more could have been done?

I have no thought that there were others in the room as equally offended, I know there were. I sat and I watched and listened as more and more were dismissed as they tried to reason the inappropriateness of his assertion. I heard the rumblings of the women as they tried and as they were brushed off you heard the words of amazement under their breaths. This is not truth. To demean Eve in such a way was offensive and because of my own fear I chose silence. Could have what I contributed made a difference.

Here is what I am on about.

There are some who use this principle of Eve's choice as excuse to see their manhood as being raised above my gender. I know, from reading the proclamation of the family that man's and woman's roles are Divine. That Eve's role in that garden was Divine and pre-ordained. God himself needed a woman of Eve's calibre to execute one of the most difficult decisions any person has ever had to face. I could go further, but I won't.

I will never see Eve as naughty. Her decision to "eat of the fruit" was brave and innocent and meant to be. Her decision gave me life.

To then demean, anyone to demean her is wrong. My role as a women on this earth is to nourish and strengthen my family. My unconditional love in Divine and an inherited trait I cherish. I am W's equal as we go through this life. His gifts and his talents and his strengths parallel mine and together we are a whole. We are united and we are complete. We are as God intended.

Yeah, I am sensitive to this. Thank-you Bishop for helping me to know my voice has purpose. This is my voice.

We are equal in purpose but different in method and together as equals we complete the purpose we have here on earth. We are fulfilling the Plan of Salvation as God intended.

P.T.S.D moment aside I am grateful for the man who held my hand knowing what I was emotionally facing and for his care for my very soul and I am also grateful for a Bishop who listened as well, and who helped me to know that though I desire with all my heart to leave my past in the past, my voice is important at the times most necessary for it to be heard.