By Kaitlynn Christiansen

Women are a miraculous creation! Many loud voices today say that anyone who feels like a female should be considered as such. This sends such a degrading message to women and girls. Women’s bodies are indeed amazing for being able to sustain life both inside and outside the womb, as well as having the emotional capacity to be sensitive and compassionate beings. In 2004, President Hinckley spoke about how woman was God’s final crowning creation. What a marvelous thought! In speaking of innately female qualities, he said that “The women in our lives are creatures endowed with particular qualities, divine qualities, which cause them to reach out in kindness and with love to those about them.” Women have been created with unique qualities that are vital to this world. Elder D. Todd Christofferson (2013) said, “Women bring with them into the world a certain virtue, a divine gift that makes them adept at instilling such qualities as faith, courage, empathy, and refinement in relationships and in cultures.” Indeed, this is an amazing time to be a woman, when possibilities are certainly endless as to what women can accomplish.

Women’s roles in the world today are often muddled with differing opinions and conflicting political movements. It can be difficult for young girls growing up to discover who they are capable of becoming when they have so many outside voices telling them what they should and shouldn’t be. 

As parents and educators, we have the unique ability to help these girls sort through the chaos of voices. We can act as examples to them and be a reassuring voice when things get tough. Covenant women are needed in the world, and each little girl has the capability of maturing into that role.

Traits of an Covenant Woman

The journey of becoming an honorable, covenant-keeping woman will look different for each girl. We, as the guardians of daughters of Heavenly Parents, must remember that they are not all meant to be the exact same. They each have different talents, personalities, and strengths that will help them become the best versions of themselves. However, there are traits that different types of covenant women share. Three examples of those traits are integrity, respect, and resilience. 

1. Integrity

Chris Karcher said, “Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gain.” Integrity is often tied to honesty and truth. What is unique about it is that integrity has a lot to do with each person and their own individual selves. Integrity is when you have the ability to be honest with yourself, and to be honest even when no one is watching. Honorable women have integrity. One of the most important things we can encourage the girls in our lives to do is develop the ability to be honest with themselves and live honestly by their personal values. 

2. Respect

Respect is the consideration one has for others’ lives, personalities, beliefs, etc. It is also the ability to be around those who are different from you and be considerate of how they differ from you. Society tends to tell us that respect means fully embracing others beliefs and not disagreeing with them. However, true respect means that you can disagree with one another without feelings of hurt and malice. Covenant women understand that people, including themselves, have a divine, God-given nature and will all have different paths and experiences in life. Respect is about giving grace and understanding to others because they are people too. 

3. Resilience

Resilience is the ability to “bounce back” from hard times in our lives. Sometimes one of the most difficult things to teach our girls is the fact that life can be difficult. We often have the desire to shelter them from the sadness of the world, and while this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, there will be many things we cannot shelter them from, no matter how hard we try. When the hard times come, we have the ability to help our girls learn how to stand on their own two feet and endure anything that comes their way. Covenant women have the ability to weather the storms of life. Their resilience is what allows them to continue on after difficult situations, and develop into women of quality. Some of the tools these resilient women use are:

• Positive Thinking
• One of the things we learn as we mature is the value of our thoughts and the effect they can have on the way we live our lives. 
• Positive thinking does not always mean that someone is perpetually full of sunshine and endless amounts of energy. While there are women who are like that, some are more reserved and their positive thinking shows in their calm determination and hope for better in the future.

• The Ability to Learn
• One thing that we must teach our girls is that life is full of learning, and in our hard times we have the ability to learn so much. 
• By opening our minds to the possible learning experiences life gives us, we can harvest meaning and growth from our trials. 

• Having a Purpose
• We need to teach our girls how to discover their purpose in life. We can do this by encouraging them to discover their true worth and helping them strengthen their individual talents.
• When we know our purpose as women and embrace our callings in life, it gives us something to live and grow for. 

Every girl has her own path to follow. This world can be tough to navigate, but with loving guidance from guardians and other trusted adults, girls can mature into honorable women. Women who know their purpose and move forward with traits like integrity, respect, and resilience. Our girls have the potential to be all of these things, and with the proper guidance and loving care, we can show them how. 

For more ideas on how to help our girls understand their divine potential, and how to access their priesthood power through making and keeping covenants, check out our book, The Powers of Heaven: A Priesthood Guide for Latter-day Saint Girls and Boys.

Kaitlynn Christiansen is an elementary teacher who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Marriage and Family Studies from Brigham Young University-Idaho. She loves to learn and is passionate about educating families about healthy relationships. 

Citations:

Christofferson, D. T. (2013, October) The moral force of women. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/10/the-moral-force-of-women?lang=eng

Hinckley, G. B. (2004, October). The women in our lives. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2004/11/the-women-in-our-lives?lang=eng

Niel, A. (n.d.). How to live a life of integrity. Alexandra Niel. https://www.alexandraniel.com/blog/live-in-integrity

Roman, C. (2023, March 3). 30 things quality women always do (but never talk about). Hack Spirit. https://hackspirit.com/character-traits-of-a-quality-woman