Gender Differences

This week, I wanted to discuss gender and family life. I first want to talk about the importance of gender. From my religious point of view I believe men and women have divine nature. From the proclamation to the world by the first presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints it says, “ALL HUMAN beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.” I know that God created each gender differently but equally. I love how it says that, “gender is an essential characteristic of individual, premortal, mortal, eternal identity and purpose.” This is so powerful to me because we can come to understand how important our gender is. This is a very controversial topic today and I just want to express my thoughts about it.

In class, we talked about gender typical behavior. For females, their behavior is seen as; social, relationship oriented, cooperative, nurturing in and outside of the home. For males it’s seen as; aggressive, competitive, provide, protect, etc. I thought this was interesting and important because these differences are essential for balance within the home. A question that I have been pondering lately is, what challenges and benefits arise from common male-female differences in establishing and maintaining healthy family? A challenge that arises from these differences is not being able to fully understanding each other’s roles. A benefit that arises from these differences includes maintaining a proper functioning family. There are many other challenges but, as I thought about these differences it makes me wonder why would God ordain and endorse gender differences? In my opinion, that is his plan. He knew that having these differences would help and bless our lives so that we would understand the purpose we each have. We are also here on earth to be tested and God knew that we would have to learn for ourselves about these differences and how to apply them in our family life.

Another question that I have been pondering is how does encouraging young people to identify as gay help or hurt them? It spiritually hurts them because they can fall from the church and go against what our religion stands for. But, on the other hand it helps them to be happier because they finally found and understand their “true identity”. This is a tough issue to discuss in my opinion but as I have come to understand our gender differences and how that affects the family life I can’t help but to think what are my obligations and opportunities relative to this issue? In all honesty, I think it is important that we love each other no many our gender differences. God knows each and every one of our daily struggles and with that knowledge we can pray for the eyes to see others as he sees them. My obligation is to pray for opportunities to serve and learn from one another. We each will always have differences between one another but I know that we can find ways to treat everyone as equals. It is important that we are mindful of those that struggle with gender differences because it is a sensitive topic and there is no need to try and offend others. I know that we are all God’s children and with that knowledge I can take it and apply it by loving everyone of my brothers and sisters.