“Voices of the Restoration: Joseph Smith’s Family,” Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Doctrine and Covenants 2025 (2025)
“Joseph Smith’s Family,” Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: 2025
Voices of the Restoration
Joseph Smith’s Family
We are each profoundly affected by our family life, and Joseph Smith was no different. His parents’ religious convictions and practices planted seeds of faith that made the Restoration possible. Joseph’s journal records this tribute: “Words and language [are] inadequate to express the gratitude that I owe to God for having given me so honorable a parentage.”1
The following quotations from his mother, Lucy Mack Smith; his brother William Smith; and the Prophet himself give us a glimpse into the religious influence in the Smith home.
Joseph Smith Family, by Dan Baxter
Lucy Mack Smith
“[In about 1802], I was taken sick. … Said I to myself, I am not prepared to die for I do not know the ways of Christ, and it seemed to me as though there was a dark and lonely chasm between myself and Christ that I dare not attempt to cross. …
“I looked to the Lord and begged and pled with the Lord that he would spare my life that I might bring up my children and comfort the heart of my husband; thus I lay all night. … I covenanted with God [that] if he would let me live I would endeavor to get that religion that would enable me to serve him right, whether it was in the Bible or wherever it might be found, even if it was to be obtained from heaven by prayer and faith. At last a voice spoke to me and said, ‘Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. Let your heart be comforted. Ye believe in God; believe also in me.’ …
“From this time forward I gained strength continually. I said but little upon the subject of religion although it occupied my mind entirely, and I thought that I would make all diligence as soon as I was able to seek some pious person who knew the ways of God to instruct me in things of Heaven.”2
William Smith
“My mother, who was a very pious woman and much interested in the welfare of her children, both here and hereafter, made use of every means which her parental love could suggest, to get us engaged in seeking for our souls’ salvation, or (as the term then was) ‘in getting religion.’ She prevailed on us to attend the meetings, and almost the whole family became interested in the matter, and seekers after truth.”3
“We always had family prayers since I can remember. I well remember father used to carry his spectacles in his vest pocket, … and when us boys saw him feel for his specs, we knew that was a signal to get ready for prayer, and if we did not notice it mother would say, ‘William,’ or whoever was the negligent one, ‘get ready for prayer.’ After the prayer we had a song we would sing.”4
Joseph Sr. and Lucy Smith taught their family to study the scriptures.
Joseph Smith
“I now say, that [my father] never did a mean act that might be said was ungenerous, in his life, to my knowledge. I loved my father and his memory; and the memory of his noble deeds, rest with ponderous weight upon my mind; and many of his kind and parental words to me, are written on the tablet of my heart. Sacred to me, are the thoughts which I cherish of the history of his life, that have rolled through my mind and has been implanted there, by my own observation since I was born. … My mother also is one of the noblest, and the best of all women.”5