1 Nephi 7:8-12

Nephi and his brothers went back to Jerusalem one last time to get Ishmael and his family to join them. Miraculously, this family decides to do so.

Then on the way back to the wilderness, Laman and Lemuel rebel again. Joining them is part of ishmael's family and that group wants to go back to Jerusalem.

And my perspective they should have just let them go leave and go back. You seldom change your child who has decided to go another direction with his life.

But for some reason, they just kept admonishing them and they all go into "the wilderness."

Nephi's speech to his brother here is instructive. He speaks of a pattern that can help us learn from life.

1. Be in touch with your feelings ,"ye are so hard in your hearts".

2. Open your mind, "ye are so blind in your minds"

3. Look to the word of the Lord, "ye have not hearkened unto the word of the Lord".

4. Learn from the past, "how is it that you have forgotten? You have seen an angel of the Lord."

5. Recall past spiritual experiences, "have you forgotten he delivered us from Laban and we got the plates?"

6. Trust in the Lord, "the Lord is able to do all things."

That last verse reads specifically like this: 

Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it's so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.

1 Nephi 2:12

. . . And they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who had created them.

There is wisdom in this sentence.  We can go through life totally miserable because we cannot accept what we cannot change.  I don't want to be one of those people.  I have spent hours in prayer asking God to change what He cannot.  I think I have learned to be more accepting and more trusting of God's purposes.

However, there is a danger in accepting things that we CAN change. And sometimes I think those with little faith do a better job at murmuring when murmuring is needed.

If I didn't trust the Lord and have an understanding of the purpose of life on Earth and believe that we are eternal beings and that hope and healing lie ahead - I WOULD MURMUR.

I would murmur a lot! Life is unfair and cruel. I hope I would murmur! I want to scream when I see a life wasted, when I see cruelty and injustice.

But I want to focus that murmuring where it will do some good.

It would be terrible that because we know the gospel plan that we don't murmur enough at injustice.

Words like "God will eventually make everything right" can be used as an excuse for not doing our part to create a world that is safe for everyone.

Which of these sentences describes you?

Because I trust God, I don't murmur at the things I know I should.

Because I trust God, I do murmur against all the injustice in the world.

I probably should murmur more.

1 Nephi 2:4

And it came to pass that he [Lehi] departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, intense and departed into the wilderness.

I find it interesting that Lehi left behind all the things that we have been taught will give us safety and security in our lives. We work our whole life to provide a home for our family, to have savings accounts so that we can deal with emergencies and not get in debt. And then we save for our retirement - for those later years when we can no longer work.

And yet Lehi leaves all that behind and just takes his family in a few provisions.

I see this as a lesson in priorities. The struggle between earning a living and making time for what really matters in life is universal. There are so many movies about workaholic parents who don't make time for their children.

Hook is a great example-the dad who forgets who he is.

Christopher Robin is another one. he has a little girl just begging for her father's love and he can't see it at all. He is too preoccupied with work.

It's not just work that steals us away. It can be so many things. Sports, hobbies, social circles, social causes, church callings, emotion problems. 

Why is it so difficult to see our own lives while we were in the midst of them especially when the consequences are so terrible? Life is ever so much more difficult than it seems it should be.

So Lehi reminds us that we can let go of the things that don't really matter.

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Once we let go of the things that don't matter, 

we discover all the things that really do.

The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, 

but to schedule your priorities. 

Steven Covey

In order to say yes to your priorities, 

you have to be willing to say no to something else.

The things that matter most must never be at the 

mercy of things which matter least

One last thought about this scripture - you could look at it this symbolically also. 

Someday we will leave behind everything we collected during our lives. Hopefully that will not include our family relationships. I want my family with me.

1 Nephi 1:1

Nephi begins the Book of Mormon by giving us an important paradox:

". . . Having seen many afflictions in the course of my days

Nevertheless

Having been highly favored of the Lord."

This is one of the treasures of this Book of scripture. Adversity is a part of life. It comes to all but the Lord will be with us in all things.

This has certainly been my experience. If anything, those difficult experiences of our lives offer an opportunity to bring us close to and help us feel the presence of the Lord.

This was a beautiful way for Nephi to begin a book that is filled with adversity.

To exercise faith is to trust that the Lord knows what He is doing with you and that He can accomplish it for your eternal good even though you cannot understand how He can possibly do it. 

Please learn that as you wrestle with a challenge and feel sadness because of it, you can simultaneously have peace and rejoicing.

Richard G Scott, Oct 1995