Yesterday I went to the temple with my roommate Erick and my friend Crystal Champion.It was nice to be at the temple and feel the Spirit. Crystal and I were being sealed for some individuals when the sealer by accident called me, Brother Champion. That made me laugh.
Also I found out that sometimes having only two and half hours of sleep can be a tender mercy from the Lord. Yesterday I talked to another friend of mine and found out some news that under normal circumstances probably would have been rather disheartening but because of my lack of sleep, it just struck me as being really funny.
Saturday morning I was talking to one of my roommates about different things and I ended up sharing with him an experiment of mine. One day I few weeks ago, I was running and pondering on the things that I've learned and what other lessons I could draw on from the scriptures. As I was doing so, I ended up thinking about Nephi the son of Lehi because he is one of my heroes. I recalled that Nephi had been commanded by the Lord to go with his brothers to Jerusalem to retrieve the brass plates. After Nephi and his brothers had arrived, they then had to find a way to retrieve the brass plates from Laban. These four brothers came up with the idea to send a negotiator to Laban to try and persuade him to give up the plates. They then draw lots and Laman is sent in. Laman's negotiations failed and he fled for his life. Then these four brothers come up with the idea to trade some precious items for the plates. They try this and the bargaining fails and they all flee for their lives into a cave. The thought struck me, that at this point that it would be very easy to be frustrated and discouraged.
Nephi and his brethren had been commanded by the Lord to retrieve the plates. But why then had they failed not just once but twice?! Hadn't Nephi just said that the Lord will prepare a way? Where was it? After Nephi had been beaten and saved by an angel, he left for Jerusalem in faith. What I realized was that Nephi and his brethren had tried two very conventional ways of retrieving the plates and failed. When Nephi does retrieve the plates, it is entirely due to his following the promptings of the Spirit. A conclusion I've drawn is that the two prior 'failures' were failures so that Nephi and others could realize that his success came because he followed the Lord and not because of the wisdom of the world.
Having had two failures of my own, I decided that I would follow Nephi's example and follow the promptings of the Lord. In the mornings I sometimes pray to follow the guidance of the Spirit during the day. Sometimes if my mind is quite enough, I get promptings about things I need to do that day. I have found that my days are much more fulfilling to myself and others. While I have yet to see a full success in this particular area of my life, I know that when I do, it will not be because of any wisdom of my own but it will because I, like Nephi, followed the Lord's direction.
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