I am so excited to be going back to school! I
started the Pathway program through BYU-I last week and so far it has changed
my thoughts about “church” schools 100 percent! I am so excited to really
read the Book Of Mormon this year. To actually study it and learn from
it.
This week our reading topic was Nephi 1-5.
Its amazing…I’ve read this these chapters the most out of any scriptures and I
got so much insight from them! Things I hadn’t noticed before.
Amazing how that works, right?
A few things I wanted to share from my readings:
What do I do?
Do I murmur because its hard or do it because it’s
a commandment? (Nephi 3:5-7)
When Laman and Lemuel were asked to do things they
murmured. They murmured all the time. Jeffery R Holland said in a talk,
that Laman and Lemuel murmured so much that when they were smiting Nephi with a
rod he might say, hit me again, I can still hear you murmuring. While
that is funny, its true. People don’t want to hear you complaining all
the time. Sometimes I think its so easy complain things aren’t going our
way. But the true test of the trial is how we react to the trial.
On the other hand, Nephi did not complain, even
though he wasn’t 100% on board. He went to pray to find out for
himself. What a great example. He went to know for himself and got
his own testimony. I think I went a large portion of my life
relying on my parent’s testimony. It wasn’t until I was older than
I had to do what Nephi did and find out on my own. It’s a game
changer.
Give up or continue to try? (Nephi
3:14-15)
The sons of Lehi tried 3 times to get the Brass
Plates. Laman and Lemuel wanted to give up. They wanted to go
back to the wilderness. But Nephi, who I’m sure, was discouraged
continued to try. He says “But behold I said unto them that: As the Lord
liveth and as we live, we will not go down unto the wilderness until we have
accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us.” (Nephi 3:14)
It's so easy to give up. It's easy to throw in the towel and ignore problems.
But to actually stick with something until you succeed, no matter how
hard or impossible it may seem is quite an accomplishment. Because of his
faith, the Lord delivered Laban to Nephi.
In these few chapters, The Lord shows Lehi’s family
many Tender Mercies. (Nephi 1:20) These do not appear because of
coincidence. David A Bednar said “One of
the ways whereby the Savior comes to each of us is through His abundant and
tender mercies. …the gift of faith and
an appropriate sense of personal confidence that reaches beyond our own
capacity are two examples of tender mercies of the Lord. And the persistence and the fortified that
enable us to press forward with cheerfulness through physical limitations and
spiritual difficulties are examples of the tender mercies of the Lord.” Our foster baby Leah, who we have had since
birth is going back to her mom. This is
heartbreaking for me. We have raised
her, we are her home, we are her family, yet she’s going to go back to another home. But I know that we are being given tender mercies
from the Lord through this trial. We are
able to “press forward with cheerfulness” and we have faith that she will be
taken care of. We are very grateful for
these tender mercies in our life.
Basically, my reading reminded me that I want to grow up and be just
like Nephi. He’s a great example of continued faith in the Lord.
The Lord is always there to help us; sometimes we just have to ask.
