1 Nephi 15:11--The Things the Lord Has Said

Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.

Nephi has just returned from the wilderness to the tent of his father after seeing in vision the destruction of his people. He finds his brothers Laman and Lemuel arguing over things their father had told them. Their hearts were hard, they had not asked the Lord for understanding, and consequently they were confused and contentious. Nephi, presumably overcome with grief at having just witnessed the destruction of his descendants and the end of his posterity, is now called on to overcome probable exasperation at his brothers to try helping them understand.

He begins by asking the cause of their contention, and on hearing that it is a lack of understanding he asks if they have asked the Lord. They respond in the negative, and Nephi then asks, "How is it that you don't keep the commandments? How is it that you'll perish because your hearts are hard? Don't you remember what the Lord has said?"

First off, I feel like I can identify with Nephi here. Sometimes when I see people who don't understand a principle that seems to make perfect sense to me, or who are unfamiliar with a particular prophet's teaching that holds a prominent place in my world view, I get a little frustrated and impatient, and I want to say "What the heck is your problem? How can you not understand that? How have you not heard what President so and so said?" But my attitude is wrong. I don't mean to accuse Nephi of being impatient (though, can you blame him if he is?), and the situation here is quite different than my own experience. Nephi has been with his brothers day and night for years. I don't know how long since they left Jerusalem, but I know that Nephi has been with his brothers on numerous occasions when they've all been taught together by their father and even by an angel. Nephi, then, is calling to their minds something he knows they've heard and have no excuse to not remember. (I, on the other hand, accuse complete strangers of not understanding something I have no idea they've ever been taught.) Still, Nephi proceeds to teach them what it is their father meant.

The take home message for me, then, as it relates to my inquiry on remembering and what it is we're supposed to remember, is to remember the things the Lord has said. This is essentially the same as yesterday's reading; however, looking at the specifics of this verse, what Nephi is calling on his brothers to remember, the specific message from the Lord, is that if we won't harden our hearts, but instead if we'll ask the Lord in faith, believing that we'll receive what we're asking for, always keeping the commandments, then the things we don't understand will be made known to us. The Lord says this to all of us, and it's imperative that we remember. I have more than once had the experience of asking the Lord for understanding, and understanding has been given. Those are the kinds of things I should write about in my journal and in the journals of my kids so that they never forget that the Lord has invited them to ask him for understanding, and he has promised to give them understanding, conditioned upon their faith and their willingness to ask.