Thy Will Be Done

There have been a couple scriptures and concepts I've been reading about in Alma that have impressed me and that I've been wanting to write about, but tonight as I was preparing my Sunday school lesson I came across a doctrine from 1st Nephi that was such and eye-opener and so powerful I felt I just had to share it with you first.

This goes back to a very good comment Annabelle made in this blog about how hard it must have been for Nephi to kill Laban, when it went against all that he'd been taught. The Sunday School lesson is about Abraham's willingness to be obedient to the Lord's command to sacrifice his son, Isaac (even though he didn't have to actually go through with it). In researching obedience I discovered a devotional address by Elder Holland. He talks about how Nephi's obligation to slay Laban is one of the most unsavory moments in the Book of Mormon - one that enemies of the Church criticize and even faithful members are uncomfortable with.

Elder Holland goes on to say that since the plates were so important to obtain there could have been other ways - easier ways to get them. He says perhaps they could have been accidentally left at the plate polishers one night or maybe even fallen out of the back of Laban's chariot on a Sabbath afternoon. For that matter, Elder Holland goes on to say, "Why didn't Nephi just leave this story out of the book altogether? At the very least he might have buried the account somewhere in the Isaiah chapters, thus guaranteeing that it would have gone undiscovered up to this very day?" But, Elder Holland says, it's right there at the beginning of the book on page 8 so that we will see it and deal with it. Then Elder Holland makes the point that really hit home to me. Said he, "I believe that story was placed in the very opening verses of a 531 page book in order to focus every reader of the record on the absolutely fundamental gospel issue of obedience and submission to the communicated will of the Lord. If Nephi cannot yield to this terribly painful command, if he cannot bring himself to obey, then it is entirely probable that he can never succeed or survive in the tasks that lie just ahead." I had never thought of that story in those terms before.

Then at the end of the talk this powerful quote: "We must be willing to place all that we have - not just our possessions (they may be the easiest things of all to give up), but also our ambition and pride and stubbornness and vanity - we must place it all on the alter of God, kneel there in silent submission, and willingly walk away."

There's no question for most of us about following the Lord's will when it comes to the commandments found in the scriptures. It might be a bit harder for some to follow the counsel of prophets and apostles when it comes to things we don't want to give up. But the real test, the trial that really shows our commitment, comes when we're in a position to seek and follow revelations for us individually, as happened with Abraham and Nephi. We may not be asked to sacrifice a son or slay a man, but when it's a question of if we should move, or if we should accept a certain job, or whom to marry, or what to say in a blessing to a dying loved one - when our will is telling us one thing, the real test is to seek and then obey the Lord's will no matter where it leads us at the time; for surely, in time, it will lead us back to our Father in Heaven.