The Equal Rights Amendment was one of the big issues while I was in office. It was a challenge. I knew from the moment I heard it. We all just worked so hard, and as a board, to try and come up with just exactly what it was. Equal pay for equal work, we could feel good about. But when you're wanting to divide a family, if there was a divorce--one child would go to a husband, and one to a wife--that was not a good thing to think about. We needed to have them think about what was best for each person in that family. And so that was what we were trying to do. We were trying to help them understand that it was the mother that made a home for children. And children needed to be taught in their home so that they could have happiness and joy and education. And it is a wonderful thing to understand that you don't just say, "Everybody's going to get half of everything," because that doesn't help people understand the importance of each member of the family. I had not traveled all over the world like I had, before that. And it was interesting to see how many people came up, giving us the kind of support that would help all the women understand that the work they did was important and that they didn't need to do the same thing that men did. The work of women was the thing that was so important. And I just think this Relief Society helped them so much to understand that the work they were doing was vitally important. I just still think we're missing the boat when we don't understand how important motherhood is, and the time that you're with your children is so short. And now, after being a mother and having many positions in the Church besides being the general president of the Relief Society, I have found out that women want the very best. And seeking the heights seems to be the thing that we all need to do. We need to seek the very best that the Lord has to offer us. And when we do, it's one of those glorious opportunities that we'll always remember and always be grateful that we've done.

I never go to Relief Society that I come home but that I come with wonderful information. It just seems like it broadens my mind. I've always, always loved Relief Society, always loved the women of the Church. But traveling, and being with them, and all those years--10 years of being with the women--seemed to be so wonderful that when I was told I was going to be released, I knew that was the thing that I would miss the most, because I had always loved being with the women. And the women were so gracious and so kind, and it just seemed to me that the light of Christ would just shine through them. And to sit there in a meeting, or to stand there and talk to them when you could feel that light shining, was one of the great experiences of my life. I have never forgotten it.

This is a magnificent church to which we belong. And we've got leaders that love us and serve us with such great strength and just feel like everything that they can do to help us, they will do. And everything we can do to help them, we should do. So it's a wonderful way to belong to something as magnificent as the Church is. I know that God lives, and I know that Jesus is the Christ. And I know that He's right there to help us every minute. And I do know that He has blessed us in time of so many needs--physical needs, mental needs--in times of concern. And I am so grateful for everything I have learned in the Church. It is just absolutely my life. And I love it, and I'm glad to be a part of it.