By McArthur Krishna

Eve as a Red-head:

One of the things I like about living in India—on the literal opposite side of the world from the US—is that every morning I open my inbox to the delight of whatever people sent me through the night.

This morning’s inbox treat was particularly happy—a photo from the LDS Conference Center where eleven of the paintings from our children’s book, Girls Who Choose God, now hang.

I cried, actually.

A few years ago I toured the conference center with a person who is not Mormon. When we hit one particular part of the tour, my guileless friend asked, “Is this church a men’s club?” I hadn’t put him up to it, I promise. We hadn’t even discussed the issue.

The very sincere tour guide led us over to another painting of, if I remember correctly, a woman holding a vessel and some wheat with laboring men in the distance. I’ll try to quote what the tour guide answered—“Oh no! This painting shows the great respect we have for women—their divinity and nobility.” My friend laughed, “It looks like she’s bringing them lunch.”

I think this conversation stayed with me for few reasons. One, I think our doctrine of co-equal partnership is beautiful. Two, we don’t always look like our doctrine. And three, I don’t cook.

Don’t get me wrong—I think people who like to cook and use it as creative expression or love language are stunningly impressive. My co-author loves whipping up some spicy vegetarian food to share. But food has never interested me much.

My Mom DID teach me to both cook and turn to God. The second one stuck better. This doesn’t mean I am always very good at it but this was a key principle growing up in our house, “Ask God.” I think many Mormons are raised with that exact admonition—“Don’t know what to do? Ask God.”

But, we don’t always show girls and boys examples of women who do. When my co-author’s three year old daughter asked, “Mom- where are the girls?” as she was reading her cartoon scripture book of prophets, warriors and heroes, Bethany got motivated. She looked everywhere- there wasn’t a single suitable children’s book focused on women in the scriptures. She thought, “Ridiculous. We need to show role models for our girls.” For many people that would have been the end of the road—but Bethany is a force of nature.

So we wrote Girls Who Choose God, choosing the boldest stories we could cull out. We were careful to be true to text but we also intentionally chose those with spunk. Shocker.

One aspect we highlight is women choosing to turn to God in whatever capacity they are in. Deborah led the army to where God instructs her, Mary chooses to take time to listen to Jesus, Esther fasts before she must go face the King. Questions at the end of each story ask the reader to apply the teachings to their own lives.

Girls Who Choose God is a children’s book celebrating bold women from the Bible who made courageous choices to follow God, care for families, and work for justice in their communities. We hope stories of a matriarch, queen, prophetess, general, advocate, mother, watchguard, stranger and friend will inspire children to be a force for good in this world. We hope they will learn to turn to God.

We know this book certainly doesn’t tackle every issue out there. But, well, it’s something. And we have lofty goals—we want Girls Who Choose God and the volumes to come to:

• provide strong role models for girls and illustrate to them that they can grow up to be devoted mothers and also prophetesses, judges, generals, social justice advocates, and endless other roles to be a force for good in the world.

• raise generations of girls and boys who view themselves as spiritual equals.

• promote dialogue about powerful, faithful women that will lead to discussions of our ultimate role model- Heavenly Mother

Our red-headed Eve and the rest of the Biblical women from Girls Who Choose God will hang in the conference center for a year. If you happen to live or visit SLC, I hope you take the time to go see these powerful women from the Bible in all their original glory.

If you would like to buy the book, please do. Soon. We have sixteen weeks to make the case to Deseret Book that there is a robust demand for children’s material about women. If enough people want this book, we have more (and bolder!) volumes queued up.

Yes, this may sound like shameless plugging. It is. But, for a cause we all care about, I can be a brassy sassafrass. Plus, all author’s proceeds from the book go to Interweave Solutions, an NGO working for educational and employment opportunities for young women around the world. And, besides, I think you’ll just like the book. Girls Who Choose God, with our red-head Eve.

Girls Who Choose God is available at:

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Girls-Who-Choose-God-Courageous/dp/1609078829/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409125402&sr=8-1&keywords=girls+who+choose+god

Deseret Book:

http://deseretbook.com/Girls-Who-Choose-God-McArthur-Krishna/i/5120275

If you are interested in purchasing the art, Kathy is selling six original portraits through Deseret Book and another five original paintings independently. If you would like to enquire about the originals, canvas art reproductions or prints, please email girlswhochoosegod@gmail.com or visit our etsy store—we will be adding more! “like” us on Facebook.