Last night I was reading 1 Nephi 4-6. I had a couple of thoughts as I read. The first was during the whole Laban-killing thing.
As I read 4:6, I was again impressed at the near perfect faith that Nephi must have had.
Quote:
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6 And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.
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I don't think I've ever done that in my life. A few verses later he starts arguing with the Spirit when he is "constrained...that [he] should kill Laban" (v. 10). I was impressed that with such a far-out-in-left-field prompting that Nephi recognized it as the Holy Ghost. I don't think I would have. I would have dismissed a prompting like that as an imitation of the Spirit.
Okay, moving on to Chapter 5. As I read the part about Sariah murmuring against Lehi, I thought about what had been mentioned on this forum already. I can't say that in the same situation, I wouldn't have also murmured by then. As far as we know, Lehi knew that Jerusalem would be destroyed, but didn't know exactly when...maybe Sariah was worried that her sons would still be there when the destruction began. And I loved verses 4-6 when Lehi responds to her. He gently rebukes her, and reminds her that the Lord is in control. It reminded me of the verses in Doctrine and Covenants 121 that talk about the Priesthood.
Quote:
41 No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
42 By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—
43 Reproving betimes with bsharpness, when cmoved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of dlove toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;
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Those are my thoughts for the day.