Compassion for Emma Smith

By Jaime Wilkins
@sincerelysatisfied

Emma Smith and I don’t seem very similar on paper. Emma Smith was born roughly 200 years before me, the seventh of nine children to a wealthy family. I was the second of four to a middle class family. Emma’s parents were against her marriage to Joseph, whereas my mom was instrumental in the courtship of my husband and me. Emma suffered the deaths of her children and later Joseph. I am so blessed that those tragedies haven’t befallen me. Emma sacrificed nearly all her worldly goods for the cause of Zion, and that hasn’t been my story.

But there are some similarities: we’re both born in July, we’re middle children, we met our husbands when we were young adults, we both were educated, we were both raised in religious homes. In married life, we have each traveled away from our family homes. We are both mothers. The Lord has answered prayers we each have uttered. We have each acted in faith.

EMMA THE ENIGMA

Emma is an enigma in our faith. This is exacerbated because she didn’t keep a journal and therefor we have very few of her own thoughts. She was called an elect lady. She was promised to receive an inheritance in Zion. She was the first president of the Relief Society. She was called and obeyed the command to help organize a church hymnal.  She chose to stay in Nauvoo when the Saints made a mass exodus. She never denied her husband Joseph’s prophetic call or the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. She had public disagreements with the new prophet, Brigham Young. In some records she says she knew about the revelation Joseph received about plural marriage and was not happy about his plural wives. In other records she was consigned to it, while she was interviewed by her son at the end of her life and denied that Joseph received the revelation and that he had any other wives. What we know about Emma comes from writings of others and the letters she wrote that have been saved.

It can be so hard to love what you don’t understand. How can you sum up 74 years of life into a few paragraphs? How can you know someone only through scattered writings others make about them? How can you ever know their heart? These were my thoughts I’ve researched about Emma’s life and learned more about her. In some instances, I was left with even more questions.

EMMA’S LONG-SUFFERING

However, for Emma I feel compassion. When I think about the poverty she endured, the transient lifestyle, the threats of violence to her family, the immense loss—the deaths of 7 of her 11 children, the martyrdom of her husband, her life in Nauvoo after the Saints left I, too, wonder, as the Nashville Tribute band penned, “How much can one heart take?” She was asked to undergo so much for the cause of Zion, and my heart feels so much empathy for her.

Joseph Smith is quoted as saying “No man knows my history,” and I think that no woman truly knows Emma’s. However, we know loss. We know prayer. We know love. We know acting in faith.

EMMA’S SACRIFICES

After the Saints left Nauvoo, Emma’s life was arduous. She faced financial difficulties and an empty town. She ran the Mansion House, where she and Joseph lived before his death, as an inn. She cared for her ailing mother-in-law, Lucy Mack Smith, during the final years of Lucy’s life. She remarried to a much older man who fathered a child with another woman during their marriage. Emma allowed this woman and her child to live in the Mansion House until Emma’s death—eleven years later. Those who knew her best described her as a hard worker, patient, courageous, firm, unwavering and faithful.

EMMA & ME

When I have compassion for Emma, I realize can have compassion for many people. I don’t have the full story on Emma, but I can find ways to connect and love her for who she was, as I hope my descendants can do with me. Through my research, I have found that Emma and I are more alike than I ever realized. We’ve loved, we’ve lived through tragedy, and we have held tight to our beliefs. I can see myself in Emma, and I hope you can too.

Jamie Wilkins loves to help women flourish as a coach for women with creative businesses. She loves reading, being creative and opportunities to wear her pink wig.