Joseph Smith, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Organization

Joseph’s Miracle Run segment on The World Report – October 2013.

http://ldsmag.com/article/1/13172#.UhuxcaQCXpw.email

By Dr. Craig R. Frogley

A researcher studied the Lucy Mack/Joseph Smith Sr. family to learn what their effective, family traits where.

This is the fourth article in a series on the trans-veil family. Though each article stands alone to some degree, none is complete without the others: 1) The Enabling Power and Ministering Angels ; 2) Family Reunions – Vital Whys ; 3) Family Reunions – Practical Hows .

We were gathered for some family fun. It was game time but, by design, the game, more than amuse, would change outlooks and perspectives of our family members. Each person was given a slip of paper to defend. On each slip was a word: lights, indoor-running-water, indoor bathroom, electricity, heater, stove, refrigerator, etc. All were then informed that there had been an earthquake and one of the items would be permanently lost. There was lively debate as each person defended his or her item. Once the successive disaster and ensuing discussions were finished and preferences had narrowed, only one item remained – electricity.

This process and discussion was followed with more slips: mother, father, bishop, uncles, aunts, cousins, brothers, sisters, etc. Then again with more: eyesight, hearing, touch, walking, use of arms, use of hands, etc.

Each round included the item, person, and finally the value left from the previous round. Without exception the preferred item or person became among the first to be eliminated with the introduction of new items, which became increasingly personal and value oriented. When we were done defending, agreeing, voting, etc. we had each clarified what was most important by imagining what life would be like without it as compared to others of life’s puzzle pieces. In reality, life’s experiences and adversities give us this same opportunity until we live according to what we value most.

So, what is a value? The Webster’s on-line dictionary includes:

…past participle of Latin valēre to be of worth, be strong.

7: something (as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable…

What causes one thing to be valued or valuable and part of our lifestyle, and other, seemingly desirable things, unvalued? Some things are so valued that we are willing to change behavior or forego opportunities to adhere to them. Things that may seem of value to some are passed over by others as worthless, either by decision or ignorance. For example the principle of honesty would motivate one person to forego opportunities to personally profit, while another would gladly cheat, steal, etc. in order to gain. Is it perspective or training, tradition or understanding that gives things or principles their value?

The cheater, for example, might happily get paid more than something is worth, only later to find that he has lost a customer. He may find that he is always suspicious of others and consequently has created an internal culture of non-trust amongst his relations and contacts. Perhaps you want some benefits enjoyed by an acquaintance, but if you don’t see or understand the connection between the benefit and their beliefs and actions, you may be unwilling to discipline your own behavior (sacrifice other valued habits), and thus lose the desired benefit. If only you knew how to change a principle into a personal value, then it would become natural to you and the benefits would be yours for the long term.

One suggestion is to see the idea of “values” as a triangle:

I may understand the benefits of being honest to my self and the community but if I loved immediate profit more, and thought that I could get away with cheating or stealing, I would behave according to the profit value rather than the honesty value. Later when the thrill of acquisition was past and the need for trust became pressing, then being honest could eventually change the feeling component of my triangle sufficiently enough to generate honesty as a consistent personal value.

This has been called “Values Clarification” as in the afore-mentioned game. We often gain understanding, and thus learn to love a principle, in the study or practice of behavior consistent with the value. In the effort to impart values, it has been shown that values are better caught than taught.

This planting “family values” into young hearts becomes ever more challenging as the world gains direct access to budding appetites through media and technology. That so many would directly seek profits using any means that appeal to appetite stimulation, regardless of the moral side effects, creates significant opposition. Research has repeatedly shown that adopting key family values can dramatically assist families in this vital contest for the minds and hearts of the rising generations and protect our children from the critical generational consequences. Modern family science research has identified several key common values in successful, cohesive families that, like good trees, have been judged by their fruits.

Families differ on so many levels that determining the success of one family as compared to another can seem like comparing mangoes to kiwis. But even diverse fruits can be judged by their nutritional value rather than their appearance. Though parental failure and success might be difficult to measure, there are well-studied characteristics and values, common to happy productive (measures of success) parents, children, and ensuing posterity. However, rendering a “failure judgment” also assumes that all efforts to assist family members towards becoming productive in society have ended, and that progress, or any hope of it, has ceased. Parents have not failed until they have given up, so a historical study can give valuable insights since the effects over several succeeding generations may be available.

Since family influence is not over until all has ended, a study of the fruits of a multi-generational family from historical research could be most informative. This, especially since the family studied for this article, is the first family of the last dispensation—the Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith family. Thanks to gracious permission of Dr. Kyle R. Walker, I will extract the family values he has identified in his PhD thesis available here or here. He specifically targets numerous historical accounts of this effective nineteen-century family. His doctoral thesis is entitled in “A Family Process Analysis of a Nineteenth-Century Household”. Quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from this thesis.

From a well-established list of examined processes, characteristics and values, Dr. Walker highlights six inter-related categories that are easily identifiable within historical records and that don’t require an interview with the family to evaluate. These include cohesion (unity), conflict management (problem solving towards harmony), resiliency (ability to bounce back), religiosity (faith and works), family work, and family recreation (play, family together time, singing, discussion, etc.).

On closer examination some of these could be defined as values while others seem to be strategies/behaviors used to implement the values. Perhaps that is because these values are so intertwined in creating successful families in that the behavioral aspect of one value becomes a strategy for implementing another.

It can be said for example, that a cohesive family is one that manages conflict effectively and is resilient after crises, and thereby successful. Though cohesion is itself a value, one can ask what values fuel cohesion and provide reproducible results in other families?

Likewise, just as managing conflict and bouncing back are to be valued, they are also strategies towards cohesion. It can then be asked which management strategies are more measurably effective in both meeting stress and bouncing back from its culminating crises?

For example, Dr. Walker noted that those families that valued religion (internally and externally) managed conflict and were resilient to life’s crises more effectively than those who were not religious. So though religious belief is a value, it is also perhaps the “understanding-MIND” component (from the triangle) that persuades family members to sacrifice personal benefits towards resolving conflict because they are motivated by a link to higher causes (More on this later.) Likewise family unity (a value) was enhanced as the family worked and played together – both values that served as cohesive strategies that enabled unity.

Though not strategically incorporated by our early Smith family as a result of any schooling, these specific strategies can be seen today as applicable for parents seeking direction in the ongoing battle for family effectiveness. For our purposes, we will call them Smith Family Values – though they were hardly exclusive to them.

Can you give a more detailed description of each value and some practical examples of how to incorporate them into my family? Stay tuned….

http://ldsmag.com/article/1/13145

By Dr. Craig R. Frogley

Joseph Smith taught that the purpose of gathering the saints in any age was for the building of temples where certain values could be taught and shared.[i] Family reunions are part of that gathering process and serve as an opportunity to share key family values. (See the second article in this series.) But they can be lots of work. Where do I start?

These ideas are come, in part, from the Internet as suggestions that will trigger other helpful ideas. Other sites and books are also readily and easily available through a simple Google search. Here is a sample:

. Ask for other family members to help with planning activities and choosing the time and place. Get the word out – let others know you’re planning a family reunion event. Give family members plenty of notice. Usually one to two years advance notice will allow attendees to plan vacation time or make adjustments in scheduling. www.FamilyVacationCritic.com 






. Be certain to include teens on your committee and then include a good variety of activities with value-sharing potential.
 Include things that speak to all learning styles and the 5 senses: listening, speaking, seeing, doing, tasting, etc.

. Assign each member of your newly formed reunion committee a specific task, such as T-shirts and memorabilia, genealogy presentations including memorials and historic tours, entertainment, dining events, Reunion Book, entertainment, photography, etc.

. 3
Give each member written instruction regarding how to execute his or her task. Create a time line reminder. Make good use of Family Reunion Planner organizers that feature schedulers and time line reminders. Make use of Event Planning Software with editable worksheets and templates.

. 4
Schedule the next meeting one or two months away and follow up on all action items. Keep the lines of communication wide open.

. Hold each person responsible for their assignment.


Click here for family reunion ideas.

The question was asked in my first article, “So how do we maximize our reunion efforts as we gather our posterity, siblings, cousins, and even ancestors around us@f0” The answer lies in choosing from these options that will customize your reunion to the varied interests of your extended or immediate family while remembering the central opportunity you have and without which, the reunion will only be another attempt to compete with the professionals at entertaining. That central pillar, which is based upon the gathering principle, is the means, power and skill of sharing or establishing values; trans-generational family values.

“The building up of Zion is a cause that has interested the people of God in every age… The heavenly Priesthood will unite with the earthly, to bring about those great purposes; and whilst we are thus united in one common cause, to roll forth the kingdom of God, the heavenly Priesthood are not idle spectators… a work that is destined to bring about the destruction of the powers of darkness, the renovation of the earth, the glory of God, and the salvation of the human family.”[ii]

“I believe they do have the privilege of looking down upon us just as the all-seeing eye of God beholds every part of His handiwork: For I believe that those who have been chosen in this dispensation and in former dispensations, to lay the foundation of God’s work in the midst, of the children of men, for their salvation and exaltation, will not be deprived in the spirit world from looking down upon the results of their own labors, efforts and mission assigned them by the wisdom and purpose of God, to help to redeem and to reclaim the children of the Father from their sins… I believe they are as deeply interested in our welfare today, if not with greater capacity, with far more interest behind the veil, than they were in the flesh. I believe they know more; I believe surely those who have passed beyond, can see more clearly through the veil back here to us than it is possible for us to see to them from our sphere of action. I believe we move and have our being in the presence of heavenly messengers and of heavenly beings. We are not separate from them. …those who have been faithful, who have gone beyond and are still engaged in the work …can see us better than we can see them; that they know us better than we know them. …I claim that we live in their presence; they see us; they are solicitous for our welfare; they love us now more than ever. For now they see the dangers that beset us; they can comprehend, better than ever before, the weaknesses that are liable to mislead us into dark and forbidden paths. They see the temptations and the evils that beset us in life and the proneness of mortal beings to yield to temptation and to wrong doing; hence their solicitude for us and their love for us and their desire for our well being must be greater than that which we feel for ourselves.”[iii]

“We must have revelation from them.”[iv]

OK, so, how do we share values across the trans-generational chasm? It just seems to grow wider and deeper with each new gadget, game, song, and movie? And which values work through the test of time? …Stay tuned!

[i] Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976), 307–8.

[ii] TPJS 231-2

[iii] Joseph Fielding Smith; CR 4/1917

[iv] TPJS 338 See also the last article on Why

http://ldsmag.com/article/1/13138

By Dr. Craig R. Frogley

“Are you going to the family reunion?”

“No, I don’t think so. I don’t know anyone. There are few there my age, they are mostly just old folks.”

So what do you say? How can families turn reunions into “get to” and not “have to” experiences?

How often should reunions be held and by whom?

From Dad’s point of view, what is the cost-benefit ratio, especially when it might involve traveling, motels, restaurants, etc.

From Mom’s place, is it worth fighting kids in small cars, trying to pack everything needed, dealing with strange places and people, etc.

These and other “how-to” questions can be addressed individually if the “why-to” question is answered first…”Where there is no vision, the people perish.”[1]

The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “…it is left for us to see, participate in and help to roll forward the Latter-day glory, “the dispensation of the fulness of times, when God will gather together all things that are in heaven, and all things that are upon the earth,” “even in one,” when 1) the Saints of God will be gathered in one from every nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue, when 2) the Jews will be gathered together into one, 3) the wicked will also be gathered together to be destroyed, as spoken of by the prophets; …a work that is destined to bring about the destruction of the powers of darkness, the renovation of the earth, the glory of God, and the salvation of the human family.”[2]

The implications of this vision, that family reunions are part of the great gathering of Israel, might include some “what ifs”. What if you knew that:

1.Your efforts, however much, were part of a great divine invitation, to you, to help finish the work of the sacred Atonement[3] and prepare your family for eternal bliss?

2.There are at least three different levels of family reunions, each with it’s own key purpose.

3.Active participation in family reunions is a means, in concert with other family history service, to influence your children even when they are out of your sight, at whatever age?

4.These reunions could be a key to learning and imparting shared eternal family values?

Let’s address these vision kinds of issues along with some very practical “whys” that stare us in the face:

1.Those who want money at any cost now have 24/7 access to our youth, their minds, their appetites, their money, etc. Like unsuspecting fish, our youth are subjected to lures more and more violent, degrading and addictive than ever before in history.

2.Though the family structure has been both historically and statistically proven to be the most functional base for a society to survive, it is under attack and in danger. Historically, in the rise and fall of past cultures, once the family disappeared or was weakened, the culture died.

3.Proven family values are caught rather than taught, explaining perhaps why grandparents seem to be so effective at sharing them because, not charged with discipline, they seek only companionship. With together time they tell stories, share memories, go places, etc. and in the process, values are shared and caught.

4.Large, busy vacation-resort-reunions with high entertainment allure aren’t always the most effective at bonding families or binding values. Grandfather/Grandmother reunions held frequently with all, small groups or one-on-one seem to bring these important benefits more effectively as a result of simple together-talk-time.

5.Both large and intimate reunions have vital but different functions. Small intimate grandfather/grandmother reunions allow for sharing true and tested family values, essential if we are to assist families during this destructive social climate. The purpose of the large, significant ancestor reunions should be to identify, and train on values that are true and tested as identified by the research of experts in family science and history.

6.We do not consciously realize the extent to which ministering angels affect our lives. President Joseph F. Smith said, “In like manner our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh.“ Many of us feel that we have had this experience. Their ministry has been and is an important part of the gospel. [4]

If these “whys” are sufficiently motivating to you then the “Hows” that follow will serve as a resource of possible details that will help in putting together a fun and powerful family reunion. …stay tuned!

______________________________
[1] Prov. 29:18

[2] Joseph Smith, Teachings of The Prophet Joseph Smith p231-2, (May 2, 1842.)

[3] Doctrine and Covenants 19:18-21; 2 Nephi 29:9; D&C 103:9-11

[4] President James E. Faust, CR Ens 5/06 Quotes JFS, Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed. (1939), 436.

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/63851/Digging-in-Nauvoo-by-archaeologists-of-many-faiths.html

By Lucy Schouten
Church News staff writer
and Darlyn Britt Church News contributor

Published: Saturday, Aug. 17, 2013

NAUVOO, ILL.

People with varied religious backgrounds from all over the country made a “pioneer trek” to Nauvoo, Ill., to participate in the first excavation of “I Dig Nauvoo” throughout the month of June.

Teams of workers in the “I Dig Nauvoo” project scraped the earth with trowels in search of artifacts from the site of the small cabin where Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith once lived.

“It’s a wonderfully exciting time in the life of the site,” said Lachlan Mackay, great-great-great-grandson of Joseph Smith Jr. and director of historical sites for Community of Christ. “It’s been many years since we’ve had an active archaeology program in Nauvoo, so to see people excavating brings the research part of the story back to life again. I’m incredibly excited to see us working together for this common heritage.”

The “I Dig Nauvoo” project was organized by the Joseph Smith Sr. Family Association and sponsored by the Community of Christ. More than 400 volunteer archaeologists including Smith family descendants, Community of Christ members, LDS missionaries and Nauvoo Pageant volunteers worked together to uncover history and build unity. Locals and visitors to Nauvoo stopped by to help, and several Boy Scouts earned their archaeology merit badges.

The “I Dig Nauvoo” volunteers documented everything they found within the assigned 10-foot squares. More than 10,000 artifacts, including household dishes and objects and window glass were washed, cataloged and preserved. The team even uncovered several lines of cut stone, which revealed a man-made structure. They are hoping to uncover more of this in the future, but they have already found two of the stone piers that pioneers often used instead of foundations.

The dig site is directly across the street from the existing cabin known as “The Homestead” where Joseph Sr. and his wife, Lucy, also lived for a time. The Homestead was a bustling place, serving at times as the unofficial headquarters of the Church, a hospital and a place for travelers to stay. Robert Smith, a Samuel Smith descendant and project host, came to believe that the second cabin was built to give Father Smith peace and quiet so he could give patriarchal blessings.

Records indicate that, as the first patriarch of the Church, Joseph Smith Sr. gave at least 32 patriarchal blessings in Nauvoo. Some of these might have been performed at the dig site residence.

Scholars believe that the same cabin was also the place where Joseph Sr. pronounced blessings upon his posterity before he died. Joseph Sr. promised the Prophet, “You shall live to finish your work.” In response, Joseph cried out, “Oh father, shall I?”

To Hyrum, Father Smith said, “You shall have a season of peace so that you shall have sufficient rest to accomplish the work which God has given you.” He promised Samuel, “By your faithfulness you have brought many into the Church. The Lord has seen your faithfulness and you are blessed … but He has called you home to rest.”

Many diggers heard these stories and relished gaining new insights into both archeology and early Mormon history.

This was the first time Abby Slik, a high school senior and member of the Spring Creek 7th Ward, Springville Utah Spring Creek Stake, participated in a project like this. She and several neighbors made the 24-hour drive to Nauvoo to help dig. “My family lineage does not go back to the pioneers, but I felt close to them as I worked each day, discovering new pieces of history,” she said. “I would do this again in a heartbeat.”

Christian Moody, a young man from the Hobble Creek 11th Ward, Springville Utah Hobble Creek Stake, echoed her sentiments. “I’m so glad that I got the opportunity to become part of an archeological legacy,” he said. “I loved learning about the Church’s history and feeling the same spirit that the pioneers felt.”

Robert Smith, great-great-great-grandson of Samuel Smith and one of the hosts of the “I Dig Nauvoo” project, spent three weeks digging at the site. He noticed a feeling of kinship as the legacy of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith seemed to knit strangers together during their short time in Nauvoo. “I was impressed by the excitement of the volunteers whenever they found an artifact,” he said. “But more heartwarming was the fact that no matter their religious backgrounds, the participants were able to connect with Father and Mother Smith and share in the legacy of the Smith family.”

The Joseph Smith Sr. Family Association plans to organize a second dig May 26-June 27, 2014. Visitors to Nauvoo in the meantime can see the current progress at the dig site.

“I’m excited to take my family there and show them what I was a part of,” said James Johnson, a Springville, Utah, resident who called the dig an unforgettable experience. “It’s such a great feeling to be a part of restoring Nauvoo. I will never forget that experience as long as I live!”

Registration for the second dig begins Sept. 1, 2013 at www.idignauvoo.com.

lucy@deseretnews.com