D&C Section One Hundred Three

Parley P. Pratt and Lyman Wight were sent from Missouri to report to Joseph Smith what had happened to the saints after being forced out of Jackson County.  The saints in Missouri were being fed and housed in Clay county in return for work and they were in basically good condition.  However, they were heartbroken over losing their homes and wanted to know what they could to return and reclaim their property.  After Parley and Lyman reported to Joseph and the High Council, Joseph received this revelation.  In it, the Lord explains once again that this has happened because the saints in Missouri did not keep the covenants and commandments they had been given. This tells me that in establishing Zion, the Lord will not expect anything less than a Zion people.  The Lord conditionally promises that they can reclaim Zion, but only if they do those things that are expected of them.  The Lord commands the prophet to gather together and lead a group to go to Missouri and reclaim the land, through force if necessary.  This group became known as Zion's Camp.  The Lord says to gather 500, but not go unless there is at least 100.  In the end, 207 men, 11 women and 11 children make the trip.  I do no know why the women and children went, but it seems reasonable to assume that they planned to stay in Missouri with their husbands and fathers.  The Lord promised them success if they would be obedient.  We will see in Section 105 that this wasn't the case.  The question that is raised in my mind as I read this is; what blessings have I lost out on because of the times I haven't been obedient.  That is obviously a question that all of us can ask ourselves as we never are perfectly obedient.  But the more obedient we are, the more blessings we will experience.  All of us have that nagging feeling that there is more we should be doing, or we what we are doing should be done better.  This is a good thing because it means our hearts our in the right places.  We don't need to make giant changes for the most part.  We just need to be on the path of growing and improving.  It's a lifelong process.