More 1st Nephi...

It's been 9 days since my last post!  My apologies for the delay...

I continue to read and think about the book of 1st Nephi.  Here are a couple of things I wanted to bring up.

Chapter 8 talks about the vision or dream that Lehi saw in which he learns about the coming of Jesus Christ.  Immediately he tells his family about the dream and what he learned.  He is so concerned about his family that they are in his vision, and he expresses his concern over them "... with the feeling of a tender parent..." (1Ne 8:37).  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is for families; it encourages families to be righteous together, to help each other up and encourage each other.  The heavenly nature of families is in evidence in our reference to God as our Heavenly Father.  Earthly families follow this heavenly pattern.  If you can think of a loving father figure in your life (be it your father, uncle, whatever) you can relate that character to our Heavenly Father.  If you can relate a loving parent to our Heavenly Parents, then you have an example to follow as a tender loving parent or role model yourself.

An interesting thing I noticed about Lehi's dream...  He was led  through a dark and dreary place; he said he had traveled for many hours; he must have been alarmed by the endlessness of the place, for he began to pray for the Lord's mercy to be upon him (I presume to deliver him from his circumstances).  When he had prayed, he came to a large and spacious field.  The darkness and dreariness was no more, at this point.  This reminds me of our lives.  We leave a place of glory and our glorious heavenly Parents to come to this earth.  Here we dwell, making do the best we can.  As we go through experiences that can sometimes be dark and dreary, we can be like Lehi and call upon the Lord,  Doing this simple thing will bring light into our lives.  Turning our hope and trust to God himself, we leave behind the darkness and dreariness of our trying experiences. 

A quick observation from Chapter 9 of 1st Nephi.  We get a little glimpse of Nephi's character when he talks about how he was directed by the Lord to make two sets of plates to record things on.  Nephi seems to be a "matter-of-fact" kind of guy, as evidenced in the last words of Chapter 9:  "And thus it is.  Amen".  We see this again at the end of Chapter 10:  "And the Holy Ghost giveth authority that I should speak these things, and deny them not."  Reading ahead to the end of 2nd Nephi (2 Ne 33:15) "for thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must obey."  Do you get the impression that Nephi was a no-nonsense guy? This is a very admirable trait, to be sure.  Maybe this irked his brothers a little...

Don