Proclamation Statement #4: "Eternal Identity and Purpose"

"Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."

What I love about that statement is the perspective it gives. We, so very often, talk about stereotypes. Sometimes it's funny; sometimes it's insulting. We talk about equality and safety between men and women. There are perhaps hundreds and thousands of different opinions, approaches, and definitions to gender and gender equality and so forth. The quoted statement above goes past all of that and focuses on the big picture: our identity and purpose in our premortal, mortal, and eternal existence.

I believe that this statement teaches us to look at our potential. What would it be like to see ourselves in the next life? What would it be like to see others the way God knows they can be, not necessarily how they are now? Men have eternal identity and purpose. Women have eternal identity and purpose. If we all looked beyond the here and now, and looked at each other in the what we could be, I think there would be much more respect and consideration for others.

I am grateful for the eternal perspective given by the fourth statement in The Family: A Proclamation to the World.