On Emma Smith

I spoke tonight at Enrichment about Emma Smith, wife of Joseph Smith the founder of our church. I chose to speak about her as a woman whom I admired.
Our theme was the birthday of the Relief Society, so it was quite fitting. I was a little nervous about the polygamy part, but it went over pretty well.

When I signed up to speak about a woman that I admire, I immediately thought of Emma Smith.
In the last year, I've done a lot of research about her, and including seeing the new movie about her life.

Through this research, the woman I've come to know and love is much more remarkable and resilient that I had imagined.

First, I want to talk about Emma's remarkable qualities, then I will speak to her resilience in the face of difficult trials.

Here are some of the roles Emma played in her long and rich life. Of course there are too many roles and stories to share tonight, but I just wanted to highlight some of the ones that impressed me.

Hostess: As she and Joseph moved from state to state, and home to home, Emma was constantly at the mercy of strangers. Later, in Nauvoo, Emma would repay this kindness by offering room and board to strangers and friends for the vast majority of her life. As wife of the Prophet, Emma also held banquets for dozens and sometimes hundreds of people in her own home. With the cooking technology of the time, this was quite a feat.

Manager: Emma managed the household affairs, buying and selling property, dealing with lodgers and tenants, organizing and aiding the church in countless ways.

Founding Mother: As the founding mother of the Relief Society, Emma used the keys that Joseph had turned to her to aid the temporal needs of the citizens of Nauvoo and protect the moral integrity of the Saints.

Nurse: In the 1800s, healthcare was so poor, Emma found herself caring for the sick nearly full-time. The number of people that she nursed back to health throughout her life is astounding, and she put her own health at risk every time she did so.

Everyday Mother: One of my favorite stories about Emma as a mother shows me that motherhood doesn't change that much, even over nearly 200 years.
One day when Julia, the eldest Smith child, was small she started to throw a tantrum. Apparently her behavior was mimicking that of Sidney Rigdon's daughter, Lacy. Emma is reported to have told Julia sternly, "Don't you go Lacy Rigdon on me."

Faithful: Emma's testimony of the Golden Plates, which she was never permitted to see, and later the Book of Mormon never left her. She testified of the book as the word of God throughout her life.

Advocate: During the last few years of Joseph's life, his safety was always in question. Emma corresponded on many occasions with the governor of Illinois in an attempt to clear her husband's name from wrongdoing.

Trials.

Many of us know something about Emma's trials. Her father, Isaac Hale, never approved of her marriage to young Joseph Jr. This was devastating for Emma. But, despite her close relationship with her parents, Emma stayed by Joseph's side for 17 years, until Joseph's death at Carthage Jail.

Of her many trials, the most difficult for me to imagine is the death of 6 of her 11 children in infancy. Burying baby after baby must have been excruciating for Emma, but she continued strong in her role as wife and mother. In addition to the pain of children dying, almost every time her babies were born, Joseph was gone, or departing for a long trip.

Another difficult trial in Emma's life was dealing with Joseph's polygamy. Despite her testimony of her husband as a man of God when moved upon by the Spirit of the Lord, Emma never believed that polygamy in the church had divine origins.
The inner struggle must have been great as she vacillated then acquiesced to Joseph and then Hyrum's pleadings over her accepting plural marriage.
And while she did for a short time support the celestial marriages that Joseph entered into, she would later change her mind over this issue, and would refuse to follow Brigham Young out West as they openly practiced polygamy.

In this way, Emma demonstrated integrity in an extremely difficult situation. On a lighter note, many years after Joseph's death, a boarder asked her where the doctrine of plural wifery came from. Emma's answer illustrated her opinion on the issue, "Straight from hell, Madam."

After the Saints had left Nauvoo, Emma remarried a man named Lewis Bidamon. Her marriage was relatively happy, but later in life she discovered a child her husband had fathered out of wedlock. When the mother of this child could no longer afford to care for him, she brought him to Emma. At this, the kind Emma raised him as her own, eventually employing his mother to work in the house so she could be close to her son.
On her deathbed, Emma joined the hands of her husband and this woman in a sign of her approval of their marriage after Emma's death.

Still, Emma's love for Joseph lived on. With her children at her side, Emma's dying phrase was, "Joseph, I'm coming!"

I've been told that in LDS history, Emma Smith occassionally gets a bad reputation for not coming with the Saints to Utah, or encouraging her children to lead church her husband founded. In my study, however, I believe that Emma was as admirable as any woman could possibly be in her situation. Taking a very difficult life and making it full, Emma served and loved those around her with grace and gratitude. Poise and humility. Intelligence and integrity.

In many ways, Emma exemplified the Christlike ability to bring something good out of something evil.
So many of Emma's experiences would have crushed a weaker woman, and yet she not only persevered, but blossomed and helped those around her to blossom as well.


Emma is the great founding mother of the Relief Society and she deserves our honor and respect.