Peacemakers Needed

In 1803, twenty one year old Spencer Phelps Jr. of Northampton, Massachusetts, traveled in the company of Elah Clapp the more than 500 miles to property they purchased in the newly formed Western Reserve in Ohio.  He and Elah cleared the land on their adjoining lots to prepare a place for their future families.  They were pioneers who along with their neighbors carved out homes, farms and villages from the wilderness.
 
By 1831 when “saints” began to fill the nearby town of Kirtland and  the surrounding areas, Spencer and his wife, Mary, were well established.  The youngest of their nine children was six years old and the oldest, Morris, like his parents had moved further west to carve out a place for his new family. 

While the family in Kirtland did not join themselves to the new religion that swept through the area, word spread by letter and then by missionaries to the home of their son, Morris, and his wife, Laura, who believed, were baptized and moved their family to the nearest gathering place, Missouri.  

As the “saints” with their different ideas and different ways grew in number, many of their neighbors and those in Missouri turned to harsh words, severe actions and mob brutality.  In spite of those around them, Morris, who served two missions to Kirtland, recorded of his family, “I have preached to all of my family faithfully, according to the best of my knowledge, and I have never heard a railing accusation from one of them.  They always treated us well…”  (As quoted in “Our Ancestors” by Zula Rich Cole). Though they didn’t embrace his faith, his family’s kindness was a refuge physically and emotionally for Morris and his wife when so many others threatened and vilified them.  

They seemed to understand, “Anger never persuades. Hostility builds no one. Contention never leads to inspired solutions…. The Savior’s message is clear: His true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire—no matter how difficult the situation. True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers.” (President Russell M. Nelson, April 2023) 

Whatever our circumstances then and always, peacemakers invite the power of Jesus Christ, Who promises His peace to those who follow Him.