Week Six: Samuel, A Lamanite.

In Heleman chapter 13 of the Book of Mormon, "there was one Samuel, a Lamanite" who came to Zarahemla to preach the word of God.... Now, nearly everyone loves Samuel, he's the guy who stood on a wall and was protected from flying arrows for crying out loud. Here are a few more things that make him pretty unique when compared to other prophets in the Book of Mormon.

1. He's Specific- He tells the people exactly when Christ will be born.
2. We don't know where he came from before he preaches, nor where he went afterword. He simply went back to his people.
3. He's the only Lamanite that has prophecies recorded in the Book of Mormon.
4. Christ asks specifically for his words to be recorded in the record (3 Ne 23)

One of the things I love most about Samuel, is that his description is so generic. He's Samuel, a Lamanite. That's it. We don't know who his parents are, if he ever gave any more prophecies, his conversion story, or really anything else. He's Samuel, a Lamanite. Generic. What does this show me? It shows that Heavenly Father can do some pretty amazing things with generic people.

Tonight I'm in a short and sweet kinda mood, so I'm just gonna leave you with this quote:

"The Lord know who we really are, what we really think, what we really do, and who we are really becoming." -David A Bednar

My last 2 posts have been about seemingly average people who did pretty incredible things. The point? Heavenly Father has got some pretty big plans for His everyday, average people. We just have to do our best everyday to be more like Him, and He will do the rest.

Week Five: Not One Whit Behind

This week, the scripture I want to focus on is one that I think would normally be over looked. The readings for my Book of Mormon class were good, just like usual, but this one verse stuck out to me in particular. It comes right after a couple chapters about Nephi (the one in the book of Heleman). In these chapters, Nephi is given the sealing power from Heavenly Father, and is told that anything he binds on earth, will be bound in heaven. The people are being pretty wicked and there are a lot of wars going on, and so Nephi asks Heavenly Father if He will make a famine happen to stop the war. Nephi figures that the people will be compelled to be humble  whether war makes them or famine makes them, but he thinks that famine will more likely make them look toward God and be humble. And so, Heavenly Father creates a famine on the earth. A few years later, the people are compelled to be righteous, and Nephi asks Heavenly Father to remove the famine, true to his promise to bind what Nephi asks, the famine is removed.

Anyways, the point of all of that was to tell you just how righteous Nephi was. Heavenly Father trusted him so much to give him the power to seal, and Heavenly Father really trusted him to exercise that power wisely.

However, my focus tonight isn't going to be Nephi. It's his brother, Lehi.

"And behold, Lehi, his brother, was not a whit behind him as to things pertaining to righteousness." -Heleman11:19

Lehi is with Nephi for a lot of the missionary work, but doesn't get much mention in any of these chapters. However, this verse really says it all.

Most of us, throughout our lives, aren't going to be Nephi's. Most of us won't be prophets, or in case you're a girl, a General Relief Society President. Most of us won't spend our lives in the spotlight like Nephi did. Most of us will have normal callings, normal families, normal jobs, and die normal people.What I love about this verse, is that it tells us that Lehi  was just as righteous, deserving, able as Nephi was, yet he wasn't the one to get the sealing power. He's like most of us. Normal. He did his best to serve God and spread the gospel.

 If Lehi were here today I'm sure he would have a normal 8-5 job, live in a normal subdivision, with his normal kids and family, and on Sundays he probably would teach Sunday School. When it snows, he'd go shovel his neighbor's driveway. Every now and then, he'd stop by his non-member neighbor's house just to say hi. He might even invite him to an Elder's quorum activity.  He would do his best to be fulfill his callings, be a great father/husband/neighbor, and excel in his workplace. By many people's standard, he would probably be considered normal, but by Heavenly Father's standard, he would be much, much more. 

Throughout my life, I'm not anticipating being a Nephi. I probably won't be known throughout history books, or known church-wide for anything I accomplish in this life. However, I can do my best to be the best sister, daughter, friend, wife (hopefully), mother (also hopefully), yw leader or nursery teacher (who really knows), missionary that I can be. I can give my time and my talents and try to spread the gospel, serve my neighbors, and raise a righteous family....And I'm thinking, that'll be good enough.

At the end of my life, well throughout it really, I hope that Heavenly Father will grow to see me as "not one whit behind" what He needs me to be.

Week Four: Left in Their Own Strength

I recently had a conversation with a friend that reminded me how important daily scripture study is in our lives. Not so surprisingly, both of us agreed that we can tell the difference between the days we really study the scriptures and the days we just read a verse or two. Unfortunately though, we often don't notice the difference scripture study makes in our lives until that influence is gone.

It seems that most of the times I do/say something I regret, I look back on the days preceding that one, and those days are consistently ones when my scripture study consisted of "just a verse or two."  Perhaps I was "too tired" or "too busy" or a variety of other excuses. Regardless, the result is the same.

In the Book of Mormon, the Nephites, who were typically a righteous people, really struggle with living the gospel and bounce back and forth between being righteous and being wicked because they are becoming prideful.

"And because of this (pride) their great wickedness, and their boastings in their own strength, they were left in their own strength; therefore they did not prosper" (Heleman 4:13)


 I love that line... Because of their boastings in their own strength, they were left in their own strength.

Isn't me choosing not to read the scriptures just like telling Heavenly Father, "Hey, I think you're really great, but today, I won't need your help. I'm pretty sure I can handle temptation and trials on my own today, so I'm just gonna go to bed, skip the scriptures. I'll read and pray when I need you again. Okay?"

Maybe that's a little extreme, but you get my point.

By the end of the Book of Mormon, the Nephites, who through nearly the whole Book of Mormon were as righteous as can be, become totally wicked and end up being destroyed through warfare.

You know, I don't think the Nephites went from being stalwart church attendees to murderers overnight, but I do believe that they fell away little by little. Maybe one day they skipped church, and then a few days later they didn't read their scriptures and pray,  and then they began to let pride creep in as they started to attribute their various successes to themselves rather than recognizing God's influence.

The end of Heleman 4 says "thus had they become weak...in the space of not so many years."

I think scripture study operates on this principle, when we don't read our scriptures like we should, we too become weak in a short amount of time. If we aren't familiarizing ourselves with the scriptures daily, we are less likely to make good choices simply because we won't be as aware and spiritually conscious. 

Now, not everyday is going to be a winning day with scripture study. Sometimes just a few verses a day is okay, but for the most part, the more we surround ourselves with the words of Christ, the more likely we are to make the choices that He would. Right? And isn't that our end goal? To become more like Christ.

Perhaps we can all follow President Hinckley's advice to try a little harder to be a little better.