Emma Smith

Emma Smith's life was so full and she did so much that I could spend the next month just studying her.  There are so many life lessons that I could apply to myself it's hard to know where to start.  A huge thing that jumps out at me from her life is that she buried a lot of her children, including her first.  That one thing alone breaks my heart for her.  I don't know how she bore it.  On top of that she suffered a lot of persecution with the other saints and with her husband.  I can't imagine how strong she had to be all the time just to keep moving forward, to keep trusting the Lord and having faith, to keep supporting Joseph, etc.  And on top of that she organized the Relief Society and assembled a book of hymns, among so much else.  She was very generous, giving, and kind.

I learned several new things about Emma as I studied. I didn't know that she remarried three years after Joseph was martyred. I have a book called "The Emma Smith We Know".  It was written by her descendants and tells stories and comments on different things from her life.  Her descendants say that she married for protection but that she did love her second husband.  Unfortunately he had an affair which resulted in an illegitimate child. Emma raised this child as her own and when she was near death she instructed her husband to marry the other woman. I think it says a lot about Emma's character that she would take this child in as her own.   One of her descendants talks about a personal experience he had as he struggled with questions of why Emma did not continue traveling with the saints to Salt Lake. He said the answer came to him that she was too tired to continue on.  The book was full of love and admiration for the woman that Emma Smith was. She was a remarkable lady.