Book of Mormon Study, Part Two

1 Nephi, Chapter 2. The trouble already begins...

Part of me smiles a little at Lehi, trying so desperately to reach his oldest sons. It reminds me of an FHE gone bad..."Laman, I want you to be like this river, and Lemuel, like this valley. Boys, are you listening? Pay Attention! I've worked hard on this lesson."

But it's clear pretty soon that these two are not just complaining teenagers. Nephi says in v.13 that they were like the Jews at Jerusalem who sought to take away the life of Lehi. Does he say that in retrospect? Were they already so far gone at this point that murder was in their hearts? I tend to think that came little by little, as they were pulled farther and farther away from the life of luxury to which they were accustomed, but maybe they really were already pretty far gone.

I love what we learn about Nephi in this chapter. v.16 says "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers." It sounds to me that Nephi wasn't totally convinced that this was the will of the Lord (it was a rather huge change in his life, after all), but rather than get angry and fight against his father, he went to the source to figure things out for himself. Because of this, the course of his life changed. So maybe this is a good way to figure things out when we're feeling frustrated about something the Lord has asked us to do (through a leader, a parent, a spouse, or some other way.) Rather than complain, moan, and get really angry, maybe we should talk to Heavenly Father about it...

That's a lesson I need right now.