The Gospel Doctrine lesson #7 manual objective is “To help class members strengthen their testimonies of the Prophet Joseph Smith and to encourage them to find happiness through trusting in the Lord and keeping His commandments.”

Lesson #7 focuses on the first ordinances and principles of the gospel: faith, repentance, baptism and confirmation of the Holy Ghost. To start, let’s look at what some of our women leaders have said about these ordinances and principles. In last April’s General Conference, President Oscarson said, “True conversion is a process that takes place over a period of time and involves a willingness to exercise faith.”

I have always loved reading about the miracles Christ performed during his ministry. In some ways, miracles are the great equalizer. They are performed for powerful centurions and lowly Canaanite women. The stories of Christ’s miracles are primarily stories of all kinds of people approaching Christ in their absolute brokenness, soul-crushing desperation, and outlandish hope, and finding Christ’s personalized and overflowing love for them there.

The Abrahamic Covenant has never really made sense to me. I’m sure that I tried a few times when I was younger to understand it, but scriptural language combined with promises of land and posterity never did it for me, so I pretty much gave up on understanding it. In the past few years, I’ve found a renewed interest in studying the Old Testament (the impetus being women in the scriptures), and I’m trying harder to understand more of the scriptures and doctrine.

I was for sure done after four, thinking that was a nice number of children to have. However, four years later I had a clear impression that we needed another child (number five) and the door of childbearing was again opened, which eventually led to a sixth child. Because physically my body hit a done button, I felt we were done having children—not Heavenly Father’s plan.