Wow! I so enjoyed this interview with Dr. Barbara Morgan Gardner, shown below, with Stephen Jones of the Let’s Get Real With Stephen Jones YouTube channel. She makes so many amazing points. I actually got to meet her in person and talk with her for a good 15 minutes or so last spring. She is so friendly and genuine, I wish I could talk to her every day. She has so many insights for friends and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I love how she talks about how her parents were so determined to make their home a happy, gospel-centered home, despite the challenges. Her father’s mother died by suicide when he was 14, and her father’s father was not a happy man, understandably. Her parents eloped to marry in the temple. They raised a happy family of 13 children with little money but a lot of love. She also talks about how she was a single woman until her 40s. People would tell her things such as, “Oh you don’t have ‘the priesthood’ in your home,” because she wasn’t married. They mistakenly thought that men = priesthood. She knew better. Men don’t equal the priesthood. True, righteous men can and are bearers of the priesthood power, ordained to offices with keys to authorize use of the priesthood power. See this talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks here. It’s also true, as she points out, that women also have priesthood power as they make and keep sacred covenants. As she says, “Every woman and every man who makes covenants with God and keeps those covenants has direct access to the power of God. It’s not about competition between the men and the women and it’s also not about our rights, it’s about our responsibility.” 

Watch the video above and get the book below. All so good!

Want even more of Dr. Gardner?

She has a BYU devotional speech below, a YouTube channel/podcast here, and a website here. Enjoy!