What Is Your Attitude About Obedience to the Lord?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to First Nephi 1-5 in a lesson titled “I Will Go and Do.” The lesson was introduced with the following information: 

The Book of Mormon begins with an account of a real family experiencing real struggles. It happened in 600 BC, but there are things about this account that might seem familiar to families today. This family was living in a world of wickedness, but the Lord promised them that if they would follow Him, He would lead them to safety. Along the way they had good moments and bad moments, great blessings and miracles, but they also had arguments and contention. Rarely in scripture is there such a detailed account of a family trying to live the gospel: parents struggling to inspire faith in their family and worrying about their safety, children deciding if they will believe their parents, and brothers dealing with jealousy and contention—and sometimes forgiving each other. Overall, there is power in this imperfect family’s examples of faith.

The principle for this discussion is as follows: “God will prepare a way for me to do His will” (1 Nephi 3-4). Lehi and his family had traveled for two weeks into the wilderness when the Lord commanded Lehi to send his sons back to Jerusalem to obtain the plates of brass from a relative named Laban.

The commandment from the Lord was general in nature: go to Jerusalem and bring back the plates of brass. He did not give specific instructions about how to obtain the plates. There is little wonder that Laman and Lemuel considered the commandment to be “a hard thing” to do (1 Nephi 3:5). Nephi responded differently:

7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them (1 Nephi 3:7).

As it turned out, obtaining the brass plates was a challenging task. Lehi’s sons first asked Laban to give them the valuable family heirloom. Then they tried to buy the plates from Laban.

When neither of the first attempts were successful, the Lord commanded Nephi three times to kill Laban. After the first two commands, Nephi hesitated. He wrote the following after the third command: “Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief” (1 Nephi 4:13).

Once Nephi heard these words, he understood that Lehi and his family needed the brass plates in order to have the law of Moses and the teachings of other prophets. He understood that they could not keep the commandments and prosper in the land of promise if they did not have the commandments. He knew that the law was inscribed on the brass plates and that he needed to get them. He also knew that God had provided a way for him to obtain the plates. Therefore, he was obedient to the commandment to kill Laban.

President Ezra Taft Benson taught: “When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power” (quoted in Donald L. Staheli, “Obedience – Life’s Great Challenge,” Ensign, May 1998, 82). 

The Lord is willing to guide us along the path that will take us back into His presence IF we are willing to listen to Him. I know this is true because He has helped me. In 2015, the Holy Ghost whispered to me that I should enter the Pathway Program to obtain a college degree. I was seventy years old, and I questioned why He had waited so long to inspire me and to prepare the way. Nevertheless, I registered for Fall Semester 2015, and I have been taking college classes since that time.

There have been many times when I have relied on the Lord to help me to understand what I needed to learn. The first help that He gave to me was when I looked at the list of assignments due the first week and almost cried. The Spirit whispered, “You can do it IF you focus on one assignment at a time.” I have followed that counsel diligently for more than eight years, and I have been successful in my college experience. Another way that the Lord helped me was to help me to learn enough about algebra to earn an A- in the class in spite of developing coronary heart disease and needing a stent at the end of the semester. Indeed, I know that He saved my life!

The Lord prepared a way for Nephi to obtain the plates of brass, and He has prepared a way for each of us to accomplish our mortal missions through obedience to His commands. The most important thing that He did to prepare us to keep His commandments is that He send Jesus Christ to be our Savior, to atone for our sins and to show us the path back to the Father’s presence. Will you “go and do” the things that God commands you to do? I know that He will provide a way for you and for me to be successful in keeping His commandments.