Praise to the Man - A Tribute to the Prophet Joseph Smith

I love the Prophet Joseph Smith. As it is July and we always think of the pioneers and all that they suffered in behalf of their beliefs, it makes me remember who started it all. Joseph Smith! What a great man and what great things he accomplished in his short life time.

I was reading a blog by a seminary teacher and she posed a question to her students. The question was this...

Let's pretend this is a special seminary class where you are all amazing artists, and in this class we incorporate art with the gospel. And for your final this year your assignment is this...

To paint or draw a picture of Joseph Smith.

Take a moment and think about his life. Which moment in his life are you going to choose to paint? She then went around and asked the students which moment they were going to choose. This was the cool part, some of their answers were:

The first Vision
When he said goodby to Emma
When he was leaping out the window
When he was receiving revelation
When he was rebuking the guards
When he was playing the stick pull game
When he first saw the land of Zion
When he and Emma finally had children
The last time he spoke to his brother Alvin
When he held the first published Book of Mormon
When he first saw the Gold Plates
When he was in prayer

After they all shared she then asked specific questions like:

If you were painting the first vision what angle would you take? Would you show the front of Joseph and the back of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ or visa versa? Or would you just show his face? What position would he be in? What expression would he have on his face? How would his hands be? What would his eyes be like? What would be around him?

If you were painting him rebuking the guards, what would Joseph look like? What emotion would you want to protray? How would you show righteous anger? How would you show him rebuking and in total control?

If you painted him receiving a revelation, would be be seated or standing? What expression would be on his face? What position would he be in? How will you show that he is receiving revelation?

After she had them digging and thinking about how they would paint him, she had them write in their journals the specifics about the scene they chose and how they would paint it.

Then after she had them go through this process she then showed them the above video by Liz Lemon Swindle. So many of the scenes were in the slide show and you could have heard a pin drop.

As I read her blog and watched the video, I cried. I love the Prophet Joseph and hope to meet him someday. I have memories going through my mind of our visit to Palmyra, New York and of our visit to Nauvoo, Illinois. What amazing places and the amazing events that took place in these most special places.

I hope each of us will take time this month to truly appreciate our pioneer ancestors and be ever so grateful to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that I am.