What about daughters of God?
The scriptures refer to both sons and daughters of God.5 The Greek term translated as son ( huios, Strong’s 5207) is actually neuter, and could be translated as “son,” “daughter,” or “sons and daughters,” depending on the context of its use. Most of what is written in this chapter about sons of God also applies to his daughters. However, there are some important distinctions.
Women and men both become children of God through finding and establishing a relationship with a man who is already a son of God. If you are a man, this is done through finding a man more like the Lord than you are and becoming his “son” by adopting his purpose. If you are a woman, this is ideally done through finding a man more like the Lord than you are and adopting his purpose by becoming his wife.
Many women are already married when they learn about the magnitude of consequences that follow from their choice of man to marry, and some wish they had chosen someone else. For those already married, the Lord has been very clear: treat your husband how you would treat the Lord,6 no matter how he treats you,7 and the Lord will reward you accordingly.8
The benefits that marriage provides to women in drawing nearer to God do not preclude their ability to do so outside of marriage. However, there is no relationship a woman can have that is likely to provide the same benefits of marriage. Marriage is the only relationship in a woman’s life where someone sees her how she really is, and her husband is meant to provide the most valuable feedback she can ever receive.9 Furthermore, marriage is meant to provide a woman with a lifeline of greater reason through her husband, backed by a sufficient backlog of evidence of his wisdom and his love for her that cannot be replicated in any other way. Finally, the experience of bearing, birthing, and raising children is designed by God to teach a woman more about him, herself, and godly love than anything else she can do. All of God’s children have access to him through the same sacrifice of heed and diligence, but women have advantages available to them in marriage that are not available to them without it.
Footnotes
- 1. [False prophets] say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. (Jeremiah 23:17) ↩
- 2. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. (Jeremiah 23:22) ↩
- 3. For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward. But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned. (D&C 58:26-29) ↩
- 4. And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done. (1 Nephi 17:50) ↩
- 5. Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters (Ether 3:14) Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:17-18) I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth (Isaiah 43:6) ↩
- 6. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord (Ephesians 5:22) Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. (Ephesians 5:24) ↩
- 7. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; (1 Peter 3:1) ↩
- 8. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. (Ephesians 6:5-8) ↩
- 9. This is the meaning of the symbolism of a veil that is removed during many wedding ceremonies. ↩