Me Thinks

 

This is a picture of Lydia Partridge and she is a hero of mine. 

Steven C. Harper of the Church History Department describes Bishop Edward Partridge and his wife Lydia and their children as the "pioneering family of the law of consecration" ("The Law of Consecration" video, Gospel Library, churchofjesuschrist.org).

Let me provide a little background. Edward and his wife were searching for a church that taught the New Testament gospel. Four young men appeared at the door of Edward Partridge's hat shop. Lydia recognized the truth she knew from her Bible teachings, and she wanted to be baptized, but Edward sent the young men away. Edward sent an employee after the men to purchase a book from them. After traveling to New York to meet the Prophet Joseph Smith, Edward was baptized. 

In section 41:9 we read of Edward's calling to be a bishop unto the church, to leave his merchandise and to spend all his time in the labors of the church. Edward was given the responsibility to administer the law of consecration among the saints. That would be no easy task! 

At one point Edward went with Joseph from Ohio to Missouri and wrote to Lydia that he couldn't come back to help she and the girls move. Edward warned Lydia that once she joined him in Missouri, "We have to suffer and shall for some time many privations here which you and I have not been much used to for years." Lydia obeyed the revelation to move.

The Partridge family moved from Kirtland to Missouri, and then on to Illinois. At one point Edward served a mission and was imprisoned. In 1833, after the birth of five daughters, Edward and Lydia welcomed a new baby son., Edward Partridge Jr. When the baby boy was three weeks old, Edward was drug to the center square of Independence; he was beaten, tarred and feathered. 

In 1840 at 46 years of age, Edward died, leaving a wife and children, ages 6-20. One of Edward and Lydia's daughters wrote, "When I look back and remember the great responsibility that rested upon my father as first Bishop--his poverty and privations, and the hardships that he had to endure, the accusations of false brethren, the fault-finding of the poor, and the persecutions of our enemies-- I do not wonder at his early death."

I pay tribute to Lydia for remaining faithful through all of this!