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How do the roles of men and women complement each other in families?

How do the roles of men and women complement each other in families?

Prepare Yourself Spiritually

By divine design, Heavenly Father gave men and women different gifts and abilities to help them fulfill complementary roles as husband and wife. “Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose. … Fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2017, 145).

Resources to Help You Prepare

These resources are to help you prepare for the “Learn together” section of the meeting.

Questions to Ponder before You Teach

What examples have you seen of mothers and fathers who have complemented each other in their roles? How has a knowledge of these eternal roles influenced your family?

How can you help the young women understand their divine role as future mothers? What can they do now to prepare for that role?

What can the young women do to prepare to learn? For example, they could read a talk, watch a video, or study a scripture related to this doctrine.

Teaching in the Savior’s Way

The Savior trusted, prepared, and gave important responsibilities to those He taught. How might you help the young women you teach feel your trust in them as they prepare for their important responsibilities as future wives and mothers?

Meeting Outline

1. Counsel Together and Share Experiences

Led by a member of the class presidency; approximately 5–10 minutes

Lead a discussion about items such as the following:

  • Our class: Who is missing today? What visits do we need to make? Who should we invite to an upcoming activity? Who needs our help and prayers?

  • Our responsibilities: What assignments do we need to make? What assignments have we fulfilled? How have we invited others to come unto Christ, and how can we invite others now?

  • Our lives: Remind the class of the discussion from the last meeting. What experiences have we had with applying what we learned? What experiences have we had in the past few weeks that strengthened our testimonies of the gospel?

If possible, discuss these items beforehand in a class presidency meeting.

2. Learn Together

Led by a leader or teacher or a member of the class; approximately 25–35 minutes

After studying the above resources and following the inspiration of the Spirit, you may select one or more of the activities below to help class members understand the doctrine.

  • With the permission of the bishop, invite a married couple to visit your class. Read together the section titled “Lifting and Helping in Our Complementary Roles” from Sister Linda K. Burton’s talk “We’ll Ascend Together.” What do the young women learn about how men and women support one another in families? Ask the visiting couple to speak about how they have helped each other fulfill their roles. Consider sharing how marriage has helped you or members of your family become better. After this activity, you might show the video “Proclamation Series: Daughters of God” and ask the young women to share what they learn from the General Authorities in the video about how spouses can love and support each other.

  • Ask the young women to make a list of responsibilities the Lord expects fathers and mothers to fulfill. To help them make this list, invite them to search the seventh paragraph of “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” and relevant portions of Elder L. Tom Perry’s talk “Finding Lasting Peace and Building Eternal Families” and Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s talk “The Moral Force of Women.” What can they learn from these sources about the divine roles of fathers and mothers? How do these roles complement each other? How are these teachings different from what the world teaches? Invite the young women to share examples of times when they have witnessed parents fulfilling their complementary roles.

  • Identify several scriptures that teach the responsibilities of parents, such as those referred to in this lesson, and divide them up among the young women. Invite each young woman to share her scripture and describe the responsibilities it mentions. Invite them to share how husbands and wives complement each other in fulfilling these responsibilities and examples they have seen of parents fulfilling complementary roles.

  • Ask the young women to think about the meaning of the word duality as they watch the video “The Women in Our Lives.” Ask them to list ways they can be a “help meet” to their future husbands (see Genesis 2:18). Ask the young women to work individually or as a class on Individual Worth value experience 4 in Personal Progress and to write in their journal their feelings about their role as a wife complementing her future husband.

  • Invite the young women to read Doctrine and Covenants 25 and find things Emma Smith was asked to do to support her husband and things the Lord said her husband would do to support and bless her. What examples can you or the young women share of people who follow this counsel in their marriage? Encourage the young women to write about the kind of marriage relationship they would like to have someday and what they can do now to prepare. Invite a few of them to share what they wrote.

3. Plan to Act

Led by a member of the class presidency; approximately 5–10 minutes

  • Ask the young women to discuss any feelings or impressions they had during the meeting. What was meaningful to them? Is there something they can do personally or as a class to apply what they have learned?

  • Give the young women a few minutes to record what they will do in the coming weeks to act on their impressions. Invite them to share their ideas.

  • Remind the young women that they will have the opportunity to share their experiences at the beginning of the next meeting.

Related Youth Activities

Plan a Mutual activity that will help the young women apply what they learned in this lesson.