Week #34 - Lighthearted and Lightminded

I've learned a lot this week about the importance of being lighthearted and not being light-minded.

Our minds are used for logical thinking, remembering, processing and decision making. Here we use all of our functions to move through life in the course that most aligns with our desires. Our hearts are used for feeling the Holy Ghost, recognizing the tender mercies of God and guiding us to places where our minds cannot logically see. In the Book of Mormon, we read of the example of Nephi retrieving the plates from Laban in Jerusalem. He goes forward in complete faith to what his father and his Heavenly Father have asked for him to do. Laman makes the first attempt by offering the riches of his father.  No success. Then Nephi goes being led by the Spirit and not knowing beforehand what he should do. He walks into the city and finds himself in front of Laban, completely drunk and the Spirit tells him to kill Laban. Nephi shrinks" and says that he will not kill him. The Spirit once again tells him that it is necessary to kill Laban to bring these plates to the people all around the world... "It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief." 

This is the part I LOVE:

 14 And now, when I, Nephi, had heard these words, I remembered the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise.

 15 Yea, and I also thought that they could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses, save they should have the law.

 16 And I also knew that the law was engraven upon the plates of brass.

 17 And again, I knew that the Lord had delivered Laban into my hands for this cause—that I might obtain the records according to his commandments.

 18 Therefore I did obey the voice of the Spirit, and took Laban by the hair of the head, and I smote off his head with his own sword.

Nephi stops. Nephi thinks. Nephi then obeys.

If Nephi had been light-minded, he would not have been able to seriously think about the effects such an action of violence would bring to pass. If he had been lighthearted, he could not have heard the voice of the Spirit and allowed himself to be instructed.

God asks us to have faith and to believe on His words. Nephi quotes these words to his brothers, in the midst of their doubting when they desired to return to the tent of their father. Nephi shared the stories of when Moses brought the Lord's children through the Red Sea and how God protected them. Nephi quoted GOD'S WORDS.

We don't need to walk blindly without any idea of what is ahead of us. We have the scriptures. We have the words of the prophets. We have EXAMPLES of the power of God already made manifest in to His children front of our eyes, every single day. These words are waiting to be read and their message to help us grow in our faith.

Nephi had obviously taken the time to read and to study. He was smart enough to take the time to understand the Lord's will in His children's lives and then he implemented them into his own life. Without these KEY tools, Nephi could not have made the decision that he did with faith and courage. He was not light-minded, caring only for the useless things of the world, looking for this and that AND WASTING HIS PRECIOUS TIME ON EARTH. 

Nephi also had a light-filled heart. He was obviously in tune to the spirit and able to feel the will of the Lord directing him to kill Laban. If he had a hard heart, an unyielding heart, he could not have had this opportunity to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. 

Each of us are instruments. We are Lord's hands here on the earth to bring the joy of the gospel into our own lives and into the lives of others. God asks us to be faithful...but He doesn't ask us to do it blindly and without foundation. He asks us to read, to study and to pray. He asks us to grow our faith on true principles and doctrine, and to trust in the EXAMPLES of His previous work amongst the children of men. He asks us to try. That is all. TRY. Faith is a gift that He is willing to give to all who TRY. That's it. That is why faith is a required action - not because it is action - but because faith comes FROM choosing to act. In and through our work here on earth, we grow to have the faith to let the Lord take the reins and lead us.  We just have to remember to NOT be light-minded and to have a light-filled heart.  

I love you all! See here same time, same place, next week ;)  

Hna Lake