Messages From God

Reading through the Book of Mormon at such a rapid pace provides different experiences than I normally have while reading the scriptures. One of the consequences of reading so quickly is that I notice and remember different things.

I always love to read this verse in 1 Nephi 9:5

Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not.

But it was interesting this time to notice that Nephi talks about this again, and (much) later so does Mormon.

1 Nephi 19:3 says:

And after I had made these plates by way of commandment, I, Nephi, received a commandment that the ministry and the prophecies, the more plain and precious parts of them, should be written upon these plates; and that the things which were written should be kept for the instruction of my people, who should possess the land, and also for other purposes, which purposes are known unto the Lord.

And in Words of Mormon 1:7 Mormon says:

And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.

Now all of this was only moderately interesting until I factored in the question I try to apply often to my Book of Mormon study.

Why?

I try to remind myself frequently of the difficulty of writing the Book of Mormon. I've written a lot since I started blogging. Some of the posts I write come easily and require little editing. (Mostly those with 10 words or less!) But most of them require real thought and effort and lots of rewriting. I'm always grateful for the ease of writing on the computer. I can type pretty fast and so I am able to keep up with my thoughts pretty well, and then go back and edit and re-work later.

But not Nephi or Mormon. They were engraving characters into metal plates. I have no idea what the process entailed but it can't have been quick/easy/uncomplicated. This makes me think that they were probably not likely to write random or less meaningful things.

It is completely possible and plausible that Nephi could have received the inspiration from the Lord that he needed to make another set of plates and never mentioned it. Or only mentioned that he had been instructed to do it. Instead he tells us about it twice, and both times includes the information that he knows that the Lord has a purpose in doing this. Mormon says the same thing; he doesn't know why the spirit has told him to include the small plates of Nephi with his record, but he knows that the Lord has a reason.

Of course we all know what the effect of the inclusion of these verses is; we are reminded each time that we read of the loss of the first part of the manuscript of the Book of Mormon, and the later substitution of the translation of the small plates of Nephi.

I've been thinking about this over the last couple of weeks. All of that would have still happened the way it did whether or not Nephi or Mormon had recorded their promptings. The manuscript would still have been lost, Joseph would still have needed to translate the small plates to take it's place. So why did they go to the effort of saying this — not once, but three times.

And then it occurred to me. Maybe it's a message to us from God. Maybe they were impressed to record their inspirations in exactly that way so that each time we read those verses we remember the story of the lost manuscript — and then we remember that some 2400 years before Joseph would be translating the manuscript and Martin Harris would want to borrow those first 116 pages, the Lord knew what was going to happen. He knew, and he set in motion a plan to provide what was needed.

Maybe he wants us to know that he also knows about us; about our lives and our challenges. And that he has already set in motion his plans to provide us what we need.

Thank you, Nephi and Mormon. Because I don't know about the rest of you, but I really need that reminder.

Consecrated

I have long found comfort in the midst of adversity (my own or others') in several scriptures. When thing are especially difficult I remind myself often,

We know that all things work together for good to them that love God...

Romans 8: 28

or I think of the words given to Joseph in Liberty Jail:

...know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

D&C 122: 7

I've thought of these scriptures a lot in the last few years. Cindy Lynn has had such difficult and ongoing health issues that I sometimes feel frustration and despair at the problems that seem never-ending. I have had to consciously remind myself of these promises from the Lord to be able to have peace in my heart.

As I was reading in 2nd Nephi recently something caught my eye. At first it seemed to be a verse that said the same thing as these other verses that have given me hope and peace. But as I looked at it, I realized that it was slightly different. Lehi, speaking to his son Jacob, said:

Nevertheless, Jacob, my first-born in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.

2 Nephi 2:2

The difference, I realized, was the word consecrate. Lehi was saying that not only would these experiences benefit him, but that they would be consecrated. I tried to figure out exactly what that would mean, and finally looked up consecrate in one of my reference books.

Consecrate: To do something "with sacredness," to dedicate, devote, and focus oneself toward the realization of a sacred end. In addition, it is to set apart and designate for sacred purposes...

This touched my heart deeply; the idea that our trials and tribulations can be set apart and designated for a sacred pupose — the sacred purpose of helping us learn and grow and become more like our Father in Heaven. As I thought about this verse over the next several days, I started to see that in this context our trials might actually be seen as sacred and holy experiences.

This idea is a stretch for me, and it's a far cry from the "I think life should be a beach vacation" mantra that I've lived by for so much of my life. I am hoping that as I keep these thoughts in my mind and heart, I can be more open to this understanding and eventually truly feel the truth of Lehi's words...

he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain...

Book of Mormon Reference Comparison

For several years I've wanted some kind of companion book to use in my Book of Mormon study. What I want is something that will almost be like a person sitting next to me, ready to have a conversation when I read a verse that's interesting to me or confusing to me. I've looked at different books from time to time, but never really settled on anything.

In the last few months I've bought several different books, and I thought I'd tell a little about them in case you're looking for something to accompany your scripture study too.

The first one is called the Book of Mormon Reference Companion. I already had this one, but have only just started looking at it. This one is like an encyclopedia or dictionary for the Book of Mormon, with alphabetized entries. It's great for finding out more about a particular subject, but not what I was looking for right now.

I picked up this book a few weeks ago at the LDS bookstore. It wasn't until I got home and read through the introduction that I really understood what this book was. The introduction explains that the compiler, Douglas Bassett, has problems sleeping. He finds that reading the scriptures and writings of the general authorities and gospel scholars helps him to find peace and be able to rest at night. When he reads at night, he underlines sections and marks what scripture verses they correspond to. Then during the day his wife types these quotes up and organizes them by scripture reference. The result is an amazing resource. Each entry gives a scripture verses, (like 1 Nephi 1:4), a short summary ("And it Came to Pass"), and then relevant quotes by different church leaders. So under the "It Came To Pass" heading, there are two entries. The first is from an Ensign article explaining the frequency of the use of this phrase in the Book of Mormon, and the second is a paragraph from Hugh Nibley that describes the Egyptian use of repeated phrases instead of punctuation.

One of the most interesting things I've read in this book was regarding the descriptions of the great and abominable church in 1st Nephi. There is a great explanation from Stephen Robinson about it can't be talking about the Catholic Church. He points out that the verses in chapter 13 of 1st Nephi describe the actions of the great and abominable church — taking away the plain and precious parts of the gospel, killing the apostles, etc — had already happened by the time the Catholic church began in AD 313. He goes on to point out that we should be grateful to the work of the medieval monks for saving as much of the scriptures as were saved at all. So interesting!

These books (3 volumes) are really excellent. I love to read what different writers have said about different parts of the scriptures. Unfortunately, the amount of reading that I need to do to keep up with our ward's Book of Mormon challenge doesn't leave me time for this much extra reading. So I think I'm setting these books aside and I'll use them when I can read the Book of Mormon more slowly again.

The last book I bought (this one used from Amazon--hooray for really cheap!) is called Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon. It's by Robert Millet and Joseph Fielding McConkie, which predisposed me to like it even before I saw it.

And then it arrived, and I opened it and started reading, and knew I'd found what I was looking for. It has the actual text of the Book of Mormon, so you could just do your reading in here if you wanted to. (If you didn't have a super-cool edition of the Book of Mormon like my Reader's Edition to use instead.) Under each section of scripture verses are their comments on those verses.

Most are very short--for example, this from 1 Nephi 7:35--

The Lord esteemeth all flesh in one: God is no respecter of persons. All men are saved by obedience to the same laws and ordinances.

Well that makes that verse more clear to me!

Some are longer, but in general this book is working for my reading this time. When I read a verse and want a little clarification or just an idea of what someone thought about it, I look it up in here. It will also be a great study aid next time around.

Speaking of my awesome edition of the Book of Mormon, I emailed the editor and have received an email in return. I asked him how he decided what verses to put in a poetic form, and he said that when he felt like passages exhibited a lot of repetition, parallelism, and lyrical language, he experimented to see if they could be arranged into the sorts of poetic forms that are characteristic of Hebrew poetry. I thought that was very interesting.

He also pointed out something that I had recently noticed. The last page of the book explains that he will receive no royalties from sales of the book — he's donated his part to the church Humanitarian Fund. He says that he wants more people to have his book so that they can read more easily and with more comprehension. What a lot of work to go to help people read the Book of Mormon more easily--I sure appreciate it!

Insights from Ether (part 2)

Several days ago I read through Ether 12. As always, I paid attention to verse 27, which is very reassuring to me.

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

I always need to be reminded that God has given me my weaknesses to help me be humble, and that He is the one that can make weak things become strong.

This time, however, I also noticed something interesting a few verses later. The Lord said to Moroni:

...because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.

This fascinated me. Because Moroni saw his weakness, he would be made strong.

I was reminded of a verse from the story of the Jaredite barges that had stayed in my mind for several days after I read it. It described the way the brother of Jared approached the Lord when he was praying for the Lord to touch the stones to make them give light. He said:

2 O Lord, thou hast said that we must be encompassed about by the floods. Now behold, O Lord, and do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness before thee; for we know that thou art holy and dwellest in the heavens, and that we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually; nevertheless, O Lord, thou hast given us a commandment that we must call upon thee, that from thee we may receive according to our desires.
3 Behold, O Lord, thou hast smitten us because of our iniquity, and hast driven us forth, and for these many years we have been in the wilderness; nevertheless, thou hast been merciful unto us. O Lord, look upon me in pity, and turn away thine anger from this thy people...

Here's what was so interesting to me. After addressing the Lord, he said:

• I am weak
• Thou art holy
• We are unworthy before thee
• Because of the fall our natures are evil continually
• Look upon me in pity
• Turn away thy anger

Thoughts about this prayer stayed with me for several days after I read that chapter. I couldn't stop thinking about the humility with which the brother of Jared had prayed. We are unworthy before thee...our natures are evil continually...

I've never had a very good understanding of what it means to have humility. From time to time I seem to catch a glimpse, and I'm always grateful for more understanding. This time, as I pondered on these verses over the next few days, an experience from the past was brought to my mind.

In our early years of homeschooling we belonged to the Christian homeschooling group in Durham. Another family in our ward already belonged to this group, but apparently two Mormon families was the tipping point and it caused a crisis in the leadership of the group. At one point in the next year I found myself having a long phone conversation with the leader of the group, a devout Southern Baptist. I had not lived in North Carolina long at this point, and I was surprised by her frequent use of the word sin. She frequently interjected into the conversation the reminder that she was a sinner, that she sinned, that her children sinned, etc.

(True confession. She used the word sin so much it reminded me of the old children's rhyme about ice cream ....only different. I sin, you sin, we all sin, for I sin.)

I've thought about that experience occasionally during the intervening years. We Mormons tend not to use the word sin very much, and seem much more comfortable talking about our weaknesses. (Notwithstanding and all.)

I'm wondering if perhaps true humility is to be able to see and acknowledge both our sins and our weaknesses. Perhaps true humility is coming before the Lord with the awareness that we are unholy before him, and that our natural-man selves do evil continually.

After all—how can we work to change what we can't see? How can we pray to the Lord for help overcoming what we don't want to look at? How can we repent of things that are too uncomfortable to acknowledge?

Interesting thoughts...

P.S. I just noticed, as I was reading aloud to Russ to make sure that my thoughts were coherent, that I have always missed a word in Ether 12:27. As I read it aloud I read the word weaknesses. And, as you can see, I used weaknesses in the next paragraph. But I realize that the word in the scripture is actually weakness, and I think this changes the meaning for me. At least tweaks it a bit. What do you think?

Insights from Ether (part 1)

Do you have a list of questions that you're going to ask when you get to Heaven? I certainly do, and it gets longer all of the time. It starts with "was labor really necessary?," includes a couple of questions about dinosaurs, (when? how? why?), and now ends with a desire to seem some pictures of the Jaredite barges. Have you read the specs lately? Here they are:

• small
• light like a fowl upon the water
• tight like a dish (bottom like a dish, sides like a dish, etc)
• ends peaked
• the length of a tree
• airtight with a hole in the top and bottom
• no windows
• no fire
• must contain 344 days of provisions--water, food, beasts, animals, fowls

I must confess that I cannot wait to see these barges!

As I was reading the story of the Jaredites this time, a couple of new things jumped out at me. (Have I mentioned before how much I love reading in this other edition ? Well I just love it, and Sharon got one and loves it too. So it's not just me that it helps! And I just read in the back of mine today that all of the royalties are being donated to the Humanitarian fund. That's pretty cool.)

Anyway, back to the Jaredites. As the Lord and the brother of Jared were discussing the problem of lighting for the barges, the Lord explained to Jared why the barges had to be built in such a specific way. He said:

24 For behold, ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth.
25 And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come...

I don't remember seeing this in the same way before. That first the Lord told the brother of Jared that they would be in the middle of the sea because of the waves, and then he told them that He was the one that sent forth the winds, and the rains, and the floods.

I think it's common to wonder if our trials, challenges, and adversities come from God. President Kimball once said "though I know God has a major role in our lives I do not know how much he causes to happen and how much he merely permits."

I remember arguing with my brother in law (who loves to argue) about this one time. His contention was that God "made" me have triplets. I disagreed — since I never felt like I had to go forward with the fertility process, I thought it more likely that God had allowed me to have triplets, knowing that the experience would provide lots of opportunities to learn and grow.

But in these verses in Ether the Lord is specifically telling Ether that He is causing these things. He is causing the winds, the rains, and the floods.

And then in the next verse, the part that I thought was beautiful. The Lord says,

I prepare you against these things...

I find this so interesting, and I love it. The Lord is saying that he does cause some of our difficult experiences — but that he prepares us for them. How reassuring to know that when we have been living the way we should, the Lord has prepared us to be able to survive the trials that he will send us.

And a last thought, this one from the 6th chapter of Ether when the story of the Jaredite's voyage recommences. After a description of the furious winds that blew, causing them to be tossed upon the waves of the sea, and buried in the depths of the sea, Moroni said:

8 And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land.

This is what I need to remember. (I might need it tattooed on my forehead so that I see it every time I look in the mirror.) I need to remember that it is the winds that bring me closer to the promised land. That it is the challenges and trials and adversity that can bring me closer to my Heavenly Father, and closer to being the person he knows I can be.

I'm still not ready to say "bring on the wind," but perhaps this will help me not to fight against it so hard...

Little Kid Scripture Reading Update

Well Russ & I re-evaluated at the end of last week and have changed the kids' scripture reading plan. Instead of reading 5 pages a day, we're now reading 2-3. It's still taking us 40 minutes, which I think is still a very long time for 9 year olds to sit still and listen. When we were reading 5 pages, though, I could tell that by the halfway point they had reached saturation and weren't hearing anything anymore. Hopefully they will still feel a part of the Bishop's challenge, but it will be a better experience for them this way.

I can tell they're listening better now that we've cut down on the amount of reading. I can't decide if it's a good thing or not to let them play quietly while it's someone else's turn to read. Rachel's definition of quiet seems to differ quite a bit from mine...

I continue to love the easy reader version. Today Rachel jumped for joy when we read that the wives had babies. She was that excited. Jenna was in the bathroom at that particular moment, and when she rejoined us Rachel told her excitedly, "Jenna, the wives had babies!"

Then they waited anxiously to hear the names, and were disappointed when it became obvious that the names aren't mentioned.

Jared suggested that the babies be named Nephi Jr., Sam Jr., Laman Jr., etc. The girls thought those were great names. They thought the baby girls could be named Nephina, Samita, and my personal fave, Lamianne.

Day 1 of the Book of Mormon Challenge with the Kids

Ugh.

Can I just say I am exhausted? We just read 3 chapters together, and my brain is like mush. It's a good thing that I feel so strongly that we will (all) be blessed for reading this way, because it is not going to be easy!

Today we took turns each reading a column. Rachel and Jared probably took at least 10 minutes to read their column. Jenna reads so much better--she read 4 columns and was still going pretty strong.

To answer Cindy Lynn's question on my other post, no, we are not using the standard LDS version of the Book of Mormon with the little kids either. We are using this version:

Both of our older boys first read this Book of Mormon with this version, and we have given it now as a baptismal gift several times. I feel pretty strongly that it's too much to ask a young reader to read something that is so difficult for most adults. In small doses, such as family scripture reading, sure. But in any quantity too much is lost. With this book my early readers are able to understand completely what they are reading about.

Here are some samples.


I was very impressed with the "author's" explanation of how and why she made an easy-t0-read version of the Book of Mormon, and have not found anything that has made me doctrinally uncomfortable. I've actually looked at my kids' copies a time or two when I'm puzzling over a verse I'm not understanding!

If you're interested in finding a copy, we've bought our books at Seagull Book, but they are often hard to find. It looks like you can also find them through Amazon and at the BYU Bookstore.

What About Jared?

(this picture has nothing to do with what I'm writing about, except that I'm writing about Jared, and this is my own cute Jared, and how could I pass up this picture?)

I've started my Book of Mormon reading this time in Ether. I just wasn't quite ready for 1st Nephi!

Right off I had some interesting things to think about.

First, Jared. We spend a lot of time talking about the brother of Jared. He had great faith, he was directed by the Lord, he saw the Lord, and he had a unique name. But what about Jared? I noticed this verse in Chapter 2 today:

38 And who knoweth but the Lord will carry us forth into a land which is choice above all the earth? And if it so be, let us be faithful unto the Lord, that we may receive it for our inheritance.
39 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord according to that which had been spoken by the mouth of Jared.

Jared must have been a man of great faith as well. I wonder what the reason is that he asks his brother to do the praying for him. But in each situation it is his idea that his brother is praying about. That's interesting to me.

I also loved these verses because it shows how much faith he has in the Lord. I wish that ever, in the middle of a trial, I would think something like "who knows but maybe the Lord is taking me to a land that is choice above all the earth" instead of thinking "I'm quite sure that my life is going to be completely wrecked by this experience." I really admire his combination of faith and optimism.

Second:

7 And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto the land of promise, which was choice above all other lands...

What a reminder that the Lord often has destinations in store for us that we can't imagine ourselves. We are content to stop in one place, and he is trying to take us to this land of promise. Again, I am usually so short sighted in these situations!

Last: (who knew there was so much to think about in the first two chapters of Ether!)

24 Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth.
25 And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come.

Usually at this point in the story I am more focused on the issue of them being as a whale (because you know this is appealing to me, or at least being with a whale!) or focusing forward on the story of the lights. But today these parts of the verses grabbed me.

We wonder sometimes if the Lord causes our trials. This seems to say to me that sometimes he does. Sometimes he has made the winds and the rain and the floods, all of which challenge us. But how comforting that he also says that he prepares us against these things, so that we are ready for them and can survive them.

At first I thought that this seemed a little pointless. Why would the Lord cause something and at the same time prepare us to survive it? Wouldn't it make more sense to just not cause the trial in the first place? But then I realized that many things are achieved during the experience that would not happen without it. We invariably learn important things about ourselves in these experiences. And we learn to trust more completely in the Lord, especially when we see how well he has prepared us for the wind and the waves and the rain...

Book of Mormon Challenge

On Sunday our bishop issued a challenge; that all of the members of our ward read the entire Book of Mormon in the next 4 months.

We had family night last night and discussed this challenge. We agreed that we should all accept it, and that I will make a chart to help track everyone's progress.

But wow. Four months isn't a lot of time to read a 500+ page book of scripture. It was a lot of reading in a short amount of time when President Hinckley asked us to do it a few years ago, and it will be a lot of reading in the next four months. And fast is not my preferred way to read the scriptures. On the other hand, I've completely neglected my scriptures this summer and this will be a great way to jump start my reading.

I won't be reading in the standard LDS issue Book of Mormon. I'll be reading instead in an edition called The Book of Mormon: A Reader's Edition".


Instead of being printed in the blocky text that we're all so familiar with, this edition is printed in paragraphs. And when the text is poetry, it's printed like poetry. It's much easier for me to follow the thoughts and ideas when they're not arbitrarily broken up into sentences. (Although I do miss the footnotes sometimes.)

This edition has 600+ pages instead of the regular 500, so I'll be reading 6 pages every day. I read my first 6 pages today, and I'm thinking about blogging about some of the thoughts I have. It's always easier for me to read the scriptures if I find something specific in my reading to think about—so maybe I'll write about that here.

I'll also be reading out loud with the little kids every morning. They're all a little overwhelmed at the thought of needing to read 5 pages every day, but I'm hoping that this will really help with Jared's reading problems and help them to begin to gain their own testimony of the the Book of Mormon as well.

Wish us luck!