"Mine Afflictions Were Great Above All"

We started - again - reading the Book of Mormon at bedtime. My children know that we have done this off and on (mostly on) as a family for the past 35 years. Well, while reading chapters 11-15 of the first book of Nephi, I noticed something I hadn't before. Here's a little background: Nephi, having listened to his father's retelling the dream he had about The Tree of Life and so forth, "desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart," the Spirit showed the same vision to him that Lehi had seen. He also was shown the future destruction of his posterity at the hands of the posterity of his brothers, and then the seed of his brothers dwindling "in unbelief" and their becoming "a dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations." He was also shown the future abominations and wickedness of the people of the earth.

After returning to the tent of his father, he found his brothers "disputing one with another concerning the things which my father had spoken unto them." Nephi "was grieved because of the hardness of their hearts, and also, because of the things which I had seen, and knew they must unavoidably come to pass because of the great wickedness of the children of men."

Here is where I noticed what I had not before:

Nephi states he was "overcome because of my afflictions, for I considered that mine afflictions were great above all." Overcome by his afflictions, and considered them great above all. I wondered if I had ever felt as overcome by my afflictions. And if so, did I handle it as well as he did (assuredly not), for "after I had received strength [undoubtdly, from the Lord] I spake unto my brethren, desiring to know of them the cause of their disputations." He then helped them with their "disputations;" interpreted their father's dream for them; exhorted "them to give heed unto the word of the Lord; yea, I did exhort them with all the energies of my soul, and with all the faculty which I possessed, that they would give heed to the word of God and remember to keep his commandments always in all things;" and was the instrument in causing them "that they did humble themselves before the Lord."

I pray for such strength. As Gordon B. Hinckley's father wrote to him while on a mission, "I have only one suggestion: forget yourself and go to work."* Nephi forgot himself (and his afflictions) and went to work.

*“Sweet Is the Work: Gordon B. Hinckley, 15th President of the Church,” New Era, May 1995, 8