The Distant Scene
Nephi couldn't see the Promised Land when he and his family loaded up their ship and set off into the ocean.
That's the thought I had last night as I lay in bed, wondering about certain things in my life that have been causing me frustration of late. For some reason I am in a stage of my life where God wants me to "be still" and to wait on His timing. I guess I needed a reminder last night that others have gone through what I am going through, and things worked out in the end for them. Nephi and his family did make it to the Promised Land.
A couple of related thoughts from last night:
- Once he was headed towards the promised land, Nephi had no way of knowing how much farther he would have to travel to reach his destination. He could only know whether or not he was headed in the right direction.
- Nephi used the Liahona (i.e. scriptures) to make sure he was on the right course.
1 comments:
Hey, John. How interesting that that is the scripture that you were thinking about last night. I have been thinking about an experience that I had with the scriptures a few years ago, when I was frustrated with life, and have been feeling lately that maybe I should share it with you. It is in that same section of the Book of Mormon. When Nephi is commanded to go up to the mountain to receive instruction on what he should do next, Heavenly Father tells him to build a boat. Heavenly Father didn't say, "Go to the Promised Land." He said, "Build a boat." Sometimes in our lives, I think we are so focused on the Promised Land (i.e. marriage, parenthood, career), that we forget that the first thing we are required to do is build our boat (i.e. our personal character and testimony). We will never get to the Promised Land if we haven't first spent time building our boat. Realizing this helped me to make some goals to better myself and focus on completing those goals, instead of always worrying about why I wasn't dating or wasn't married yet. I also realized that I needed to learn to be happy with myself and who I was while single if I ever wanted to be happy with myself when married. Even though Nephi couldn't see the Promised Land when he set sail, he could have peace knowing that he was prepared to get there because he had built his boat.
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