116/365 - Happy July 24th!

I like to think I would have been a good little pioneer, but I know that is absolutely not true. There is a reason I was not born into that dispensation when the Mormon church was still new and they were being cast out no matter where they settled. I think I would have struggled with Brigham Young. Although he was somewhat controversial to many of the early Saints, there is no doubt in my mind that he was the only one who would be able to lead the Saints westward. He was a prophet of God. I'm glad that I wasn't in the company when they entered into the dry and desolate Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. I would have been a big-haired lousy pioneer who was in desperate need of some diet Coke.

But I am grateful for my ancestors who were truly chosen to live in that time period and make sacrifices to better their lives, the lives of their families, and the future of their posterity. That's where I come in. I'm the posterity. Although I cannot begin to comprehend the trials and hardships of my relatives many generations back, I'm grateful for the life and freedom I have now. Theirs was a calling of patience, endurance and love.

Maybe I'm a pioneer in a different way. Maybe I'm facing challenges and trials that will benefit my posterity as well. I'm not sure. Maybe one day someone will be thankful for the choices I made in my life. I'd like to think somehow I will pay it all forward in the end.

"We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? Every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with Him in our extremities! I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up for I cannot pull the load through it. I have gone to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me! I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the Angels of God were there. Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No! Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company."
-Francis Webster, Martin Handcart Company

Happy Pioneer Day!