Continuing from a previous post and Kathy K. Clayton’s book, “Teaching to Build and Faithfulness”:
It was summer. The swimsuit season was in full tilt and those young women and others like them were making decisions about how covered (or uncovered) they would be at the pool. Wanting to include their leaders in the emerging debate one young woman asked us, “So what is the real official position of the Church on two-piece swimsuits? We really want to be obedient, but everybody says different things. Just tell us and we will do it.”
Without a specific scriptural reference or official statement from Church leaders in our ward we resisted the urge to promptly share our personal opinions. We did have opinions, and were dying to share them with confident authority, but we managed to restrain ourselves. Determined to respond to their genuine seeking with helpful and supportive answers, we contacted other young women leaders to counsel with them regarding the policy of the Church. We also began a quest of our own to locate statements by Church leaders that would be helpful.
When neither of those efforts provided us with conclusive responses for those eleven eager young women, we determined that they would learn from Joseph Smith’s example and ask for themselves. We had all read the scripture that inspired Joseph Smith: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). That same promise was certainly applicable to these young women, and their lack of wisdom, wasn’t it? Heavenly Father had promised that they could ask and if their intent was real and their hearts were right, He would liberally answer. We believed that wholeheartedly. We also believed that if we successfully taught the young women correct principles we could trust them to govern themselves.
“Teach the People Correct Principles and Let Them Govern Themselves”—-Joseph Smith
Our task, therefore, as their leaders, was neither to compel them to a certain behavior nor to spoon feed them answers to their questions, however correct those answers might be. A higher goal for us would be to encourage and assist them to access the heavenly procedure that the scriptures teach. We fully believed that if we did our part to teach them the process of receiving answers to prayer, they could connect with heaven personally and gain answers to their specific question, as well as familiarity with a process that would bless their lives forever.
In order to formalize and add dignity to the heavenly process in which we were about to engage, we asked each of those young women to accept an official assignment on a young women task force to study and seek answers relative to issues regarding appropriate dress for young women. Our faith in both the sincerity of those girls and the generosity of heaven, assured us that they would receive heavenly help with their quest. ~Kathy K. Clayton, Teaching to Build Faith and Faithfulness (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012) p. 120-21
