Faith of our Fathers

Today is a pretty special day for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For those who may not be familiar with our faith, on July 24th, 1847, Brigham Young lead the first group of LDS pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. It was a long and treacherous journey which required faith beyond comprehension. This experience from a man who made the journey, pulling a handcart the whole way, is an example of many miracles that occurred during the trek. He said,

"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 on 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 me eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there."

I am grateful for the faith of those who have gone before me- the New Testament Christians, who suffered martyrdom for Christ's sake, for early members of the church who were beaten, driven from their homes, and killed for their beliefs. Under such circumstances, it would've been easy to give in and end their suffering. They could've stopped it at any time with a simple retraction of what they had claimed was truth. Why didn't they? Because true faith and conviction didn't allow it. It's my hope that we seek to develop and strengthen our faith, and follow in the footsteps of our fathers, footsteps full of faith.