"Now Let Us Rejoice"

For Easter we bought ourselves the book "Our Latter-Day Hymns," by Karen Lynn Davidson.
Since our kids are young and we wanted at least Brynn to remember this trip, I felt the need to keep talking about our experiences with the Church History sites and our testimonies of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I decided to give our Family Home Evening lesson on "Now Let Us Rejoice", Hymn no. 3 in LDS Hymnbook. This song was written by W.W, Phelps. I'm going to share a little history provided from the above book. I hope I'm not infringing on copyright laws.
The author quotes from the Comprehensive history of the Church: "In, 1833, a mob, plentifully armed and numbering between four and five hundred, came upon the settlement at Independence. They tore down the two story brick building in which the press was housed and in the lower par of which the Phelps family lived; they destroyed the press, burned the books and papers, drove Mrs. Phelps and her baby out upon the street;...and they served warning on all the Saints living in the county not to do any more work or build or buy or sell in their settlements." The Saints were soon after driven from their homes in the dead of winter.
Here is a link to the words of this hymn:
http://www.lds.org/churchmusic/detailmusicPlayer/index.html?searchlanguage=1&searchcollection=1&searchseqstart=3&searchsubseqstart=%20&searchseqend=3&searchsubseqend=ZZZ

This song is powerful evidence of the testimonies of the early Saints. I have always liked this song but it has taken on a deeper meaning to me now. After witnessing the strength of the parents of our nephew who just passed away, I know they believe this too. It is because of the Savior's atonement that we still can rejoice when really hard things come our way.