Snapshot #294: The Mantle of Women

May 6, 2011.  Orem, Utah.  I am compelled to share a discourse from Glenn L. Pace titled, "The Divine Nature and Destiny of Women."  My cousin, Zack, shared the discourse with me.  It was given originally as a BYU devotional on Tuesday, March 9, 2010.  If you read anything from my blog...read this discourse.  It is paradigm-shifting in its bestowal of perspective on the mantle of women since before the beginning of time.  It gave me the gifts of empowerment and faith in my divine attributes.  Here's a sneak peak:


"I’d like to share a perspective from John Milton’s Paradise Lost that fully resonates with my soul.

Much like President Clark, Milton describes the beauty of the Garden and the variety of animals. However, he goes into more detail on his perception of Adam’s frustration and loneliness. In his account, Adam watches the interplay between the animals and communicates with them as best he can. However, Adam concludes something is drastically amiss. Milton wrote:

They rejoice
Each with their kind, lion with lioness;
So fitly them in pairs thou hast combin’d;
Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl
So well converse, nor with the ox the ape;
Worse then can man with beast, and least of all.³

In other words, Adam is saying, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

Milton goes on to suggest that God delayed the introduction of Eve until Adam could fully appreciate her. Seeing that Adam is now ready for the introduction of Eve, God describes what is going to happen next. I love Milton’s description of what Eve would mean to Adam:

What next I bring shall please thee, be assur’d,
Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,
Thy wish exactly to thy heart’s desire.⁴

“Thy fit help”? No, this doesn’t mean she would be in good shape. It means she would be a match, a complement, a counterpart, even his “other self.”

Finally, Eve stood before him, and she exceeded his highest expectations. He had never seen anything like her in the garden. Milton continues:

Under his forming hands a creature grew,
Manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair,
That what seem’d fair in all the world, seem’d now
Mean, or in her summ’d up, in her contain’d,
And in her looks, which from that time infus’d
Sweetness into my heart, unfelt before.⁵