- Today, I'm at Dare to Dream with an article about the Mormon Women Project. I particularly like this article because it's addressed to a non-LDS crowd, and so it allowed me to reveal a little more of my own experience being a Mormon woman among others not of my faith.
- The Project received terrific publicity at the Deseret News' MormonTimes.com yesterday.
I introduced a new category to the project yesterday: Lives of Service. As nominations have come into the site, I have been struck by how many Mormon women are engaged in truly spectacular service. I've grumbled in the past about how we talk so much in our church about Christ-like service, but all we really do is give money and bring dinner to a new mom, who probably has a cute baby we can cuddle and may be a friend we want to chat with anyway. Some sacrifice. But I have been chastened as I have been introduced to these nominees. And -- I'll say it -- I think a focus on global service is a strength of the Church here in Utah that I haven't seen in my city wards. I think part of that -- and this is at least true for me -- is that in city wards there are so many immediate needs among the members that we have no strength or perspective left for the kids in Afghanistan or whatever it might be. Also, we're so busy trying to take care of ourselves -- with the physical demands of city life, the financial pressures, the on-top-of-each-other spaces -- that we don't have as much emotional space to consider the needs of people a world away from us.
These new stories of service are immensely impacting for me. I particularly appreciate how focusing on service avoids the at-home mother vs. professional tension that I'm really trying hard to balance with the profiles I put on the site. Anybody can do service: mothers, single women, professionals. Plus, it's the perfect manifestation of our true Christianity. A win-win all around!
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