Gender Roles and Divine Eternal Identities:

"Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal and eternal identity and purpose... By divine design, fathers are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families.  Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.  In these repsponsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."  (The Family Proclamation)

I have been learning about the differences in men and women and it has been fascinating to learn that research has proven that differences between men and women do in fact exist.  Despite what many in society today would have us believe.  It seems to be a terrible thing to suggest that women are naturally more capable of certain things (verbal communication, more observant, listening, empathy) and men are more naturally capable of certain things (non-verbal communication, action focused , task oriented, spatial orientation, aggressive).  But science has proven what God has declared and taught in the Proclamation.  When studying the brains of men and women, research has shown that men have more "gray matter" which is the tissue associated with problem solving and task orientation.  Women's brains are made up of as much as 5x more "white matter" otherwise known as "connective tissue".   This is associated with emotions, communication, creative abilities, etc.  When you compare this information with the divine responsibilities of men and women that God has established in the Family Proclamation it is amazing how we have been created to accomplish these divine purposes.  It is very sad to me that in an effort to "equalize" the genders and make certain that everyone is treated fairly (a noble and worthy cause) we have swung to the other side of the pendulum and the adversary is succeeding in eliminating altogether these divne roles and attributes that men and women have.  "Equality is all too often used to mean "identity"; that is, that two equal things must be identical to each other.  Such usage represents a fallen and harmful understanding of equality that is espoused by Lucifer, who passionately wants all to be 'like.. himself'." (Hawkins, p.38).  We know from the Proclamation that "gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal and eternal identity and purpose."  In other words, gender or sex presents at least one way we will differ in the eternities.  Though men and women are very different in purpose we also know that we are equal in terms of importance and worth to our Father in Heaven.  In fact it has been interesting to further understand the eternal doctrine of marriage and everlasting covenant. "Indeed, the restored gospel teaches us that the term "God" means an exalted man and exalted woman united in the everlasting covenant of marriage." (Hawkins, p39).  We cannot reach our fullest potential without each other.  It makes me think of what we know about our brains. If we were to combine and man's brain with a woman's brain - weld it together in perfect unity then the result would be one completely perfectly functioning brain that is capable of unlimited power.  I believe that this is the ultimate purpose of marriage and how well does the adversary twist and turn this amazing doctrine into something so completely opposite.  He has almost perfectly mastered his deceptions which are all devised specifically to destroy marriages and families.
  If we really stop to think about what Satan tells us... one one hand he is leading the movement of people and society that would have us believe that there is no gender differences... that we are all the same, "equal" and women can do all that men do and men can do all that women do etc. etc.  This lie causes great confusion and leads to mothers leaving the home to work, gender confusion, decline in marriage rates, individualism, redefining marriage, etc.  You could go on and on as to what this one lie leads to.  And on the other hand Satan whispers carefully (sometimes he screams it) in the ears of those who are married that we are "too different..." that men and women- husbands and wives will never be able to "really connect" or relate to each other and "marriage is too hard because of these differences" so we should "give up" and find someone else who will "meet our needs"... etc.etc.  This lie leads to a rise in divorce, separation and if nothing else, just simply empty, unhappy marriages.  Either lie ultimately leads to destruction of the family.

FHE Ideas:
Song: "The Family is of God"
Scripture: 1 Corithians 11:11 "Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord"
Read Proclamation: "Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal and eternal identity and purpose... By divine design, fathers are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families.  Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.  In these repsponsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."
Discuss the different attributes that men and women have.  Discuss the divine roles that men and women have according to the Proclamation and how children can prepare now to accomplish these purposes.  How does Satan try to stop us from accomplishing these purposes?

Video Resource about Gender differences: http://stream.byui.edu/VideoPlayer/BYUIplayer.html?StartCue=18&EndCue=2839&VideoName=5687_vcs&VideoType=libraryvideos