day 2: 1 Nephi 2

Day 2! And there is a post! :)

Alrighty, so the second chapter of 1st Nephi. Lehi has another dream, in which he is told by the Lord that the inhabitants of Jerusalem are pretty ticked (obvi) and are going to try and kill him. Lehi and his family must leave Jerusalem with pretty much nothing, and travel in tents to survive. Sariah, Sam and Nephi go willingly, Laman and Lemuel, not so much. Lehi tries his best to keep his sons strong in the Gospel, but half of them aren't interested.

Does the Lord really ask that much of us? Personally, I have never been told to leave my house and live in the woods. Of course, it's not always easy to do what the Lord asks. Quite honestly, I don't really blame Laman and Lemuel for "murmuring". Not justify and to say that they should have, but out of the things to cause you to complain, I think that leaving everything you own (including your friends, bed, good food) behind and living in the deserted wilderness is pretty high up on the "good reasons" list. But therein lies the point; the Lord at various points in our lives is going to give us things to do, that are hard. So, we are then left with a choice: to do it willingly (like Lehi, Nephi, Sariah, and Sam) or unwillingly (Laman and Lemuel). Who does it turn out better for in the end? I'm going to go ahead and vote Nephi, based on the fact that he and his seed didn't get cut off from the Lord later on. When Nephi prays to the Lord, he is promised that as long as he keeps His commandments that he will prosper and be led to a land of promise, and we see later on that this does happen. Simple as that. We keep our promises to the Lord, He keeps His to us. I love the simplicity of the Gospel.