Praise to the Man!

December 23, 2007. Two hundred and 2 years ago, the prophet Joseph Smith was born. He was born on December 23, 1805 in Sharon, Vermont.

They Named Him Joseph. "When theologians are reeling and stumbling, when lips are pretending and hearts are wandering, and people are 'running to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord and cannot find it"--when clouds of error need dissipating and spiritual darkness needs penetrating and heavens need opening, a little infant is born. Just a few scattered neighbors in a hilly region in the backwoods even know that Lucy Smith is expecting. There is no prenatal care, nor nurses, no hospital, no ambulance, no delivery room. Babies live and die in this rough environment and few know about it.
Another child for Lucy! No trumpets are sounded; no hourly bulletins posted; no pictures taken; no notice is given; just a few friendly community folk pass a word along. It's a boy! Little do the brothers and sisters dream that a prophet is born to their family; even his proud parents can little suspect his spectacular destiny. No countryside farmers or loungers at the country store, no village gossips even surmise how much they could discuss, did they but have the power of prophetic vision.
"They are naming him Joseph," it is reported. But no one knows, not even parents, at this time, that this infant and his father have been named in the scriptures for 3,500 years, named for and known to their ancestor, Joseph, the savior of Egypt and Israel. Not even his adoring mother realized, even in her most ambitious dreaming and her silent musings, that this one of her children, like his ancestor, will be the chief sheaf of grain to which all others will lean and the one star to which the sun and moon and other stars will make obeisance.
He will inspire hatred and ambition; he will build an empire and restore a church--The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions will follow him; monuments will be built to him; poets will sing of him; authors will write libraries of books about him.
No living soul can guess that this little pinkish infant will become the peer of Moses in spiritual power and greater than many prophets before him, He will talk with God, the Eternal Father, and Jesus Christ, His Son; and angels will be his great instructors.
"We fancy," said F. M. Bareham, "God can manage His world only with great battalions, when all the time He is doing it with beautiful babies."
Oh foolish men who think to protect the world with armaments, battleships, and space equipment, when only righteousness is needed!
Having read the pages of history, six thousand years of it, can we not see that God sent His babies to become the teachers and prophets to warn us of our threatening fate? Cannot we read the handwriting on the wall? History repeats itself.
Oh mortal men, deaf and blind! Can we not read the past? For thousands of years have plowshares been beaten into swords and pruning hooks into spears, yet war persists.
The answer to all of our problems--personal, national, and international--has been given to us many times by many prophets, ancient to modern. Why must we grovel in the earth when we could be climbing toward heaven! The path is not obscure. Perhaps it is too simple for us to see. We look to foreign programs, summit conference, land bases. We depend on fortifications, or gods o stone; upon ships and planes and projectiles, our gods of iron--gods which have no ears, no eyes, no hearts. We pray to them for deliverance and depend upon them for protection. Like the gods of Baal, they could be "talking or pursuing or on a journey or peradventure sleeping" when they are needed most. And like Elijah, we might cry out to our world.
"How long halt ye between two opinions! if the Lord be God, follow him...(I Kings 18:21)
My testimony to you is, the Lord is God. He has charted the way, but we do not follow. He personally visited Joseph Smith in our world, in our century. He outlined the way of peace in this world and eternal worlds. That path is righteousness. The Prophet Joseph Smith with all the successor prophets proclaiming the ripening of this world in iniquity and the solution of all vexing problems. The Book of Mormon which he translated relates the story of 200 years of peace in the old days, which was the greatest era of happiness of which we have any complete record. (They Named Him Joseph, by Spencer W. Kimball, December 1966)

Praise to the Man! Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fullness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord's annointed in ancient times,, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood." (D&C 135:3) Praise to the Man!

Family Home Evening Activity:

1. Color a picture of the prophet Joseph Smith
2. Have your mom or dad tell what it was like living at the Hill Cumorah for three summers and participating in the Pageant.
3. List the things that Joseph Smith accomplished that you can remember.
4. Study the prophesy of Joseph Smith from 2 Nephi 3:15.
5. Tell a story about what Joseph Smith was like as a little boy. Perhaps tell the story about when he had an operation on his leg.
6. Share your testimonies with each other about Joseph Smith.