Thoughts from stake conference and 1 Nephi 1

This weekend is stake conference and we attended today and last night. I have a great admiration for our stake president and find his words inspiring and riveting. Today, his talk centered on spiritual safety and how gathering to the stakes of Zion facilitates that.

It was very much a "discipleship" kind of talk. I've been thinking about this a little while. I like general direction on how we can have the Spirit, on becoming followers of Christ. Pres P is putting the onus of most of the specifics on us, it seems. This is very different, to me, than the talks I've heard directed to women, for example, where there are a litany of specific directives without an overriding theme of personal revelation and finding a good fit for our personal circumstances. While I see the need for specific talks about being a member missionary (what our mission president and his wife discussed), I much prefer the idea that when I am living my life in a way that I have the Spirit guiding me, I will be inspired with regards to missionary work (or parenting or whatever happens to be the most important thing for me at the moment). Pres P's counsel seems always applicable, while very specific talks might not be at a given time. And while I need to hear counsel about home storage and financial preparation, I appreciate it so much more when it is contextualized within the larger gospel. There are a lot of things from his talk that I need to process.

One of the specifics things that he talked about was the Book of Mormon and scripture study as a key way to invite the spirit into our lives and prevent ourselves from becoming spiritually complacent and cut off from the presence of the Lord. He asked us to read the Book of Mormon in its entirety before our next stake conference, and while I think that there are better ways of studying the scriptures than chronologically, right now I am hardly getting any scripture study in at all, and in sequence is better than nothing for me right now.

I came home and started with 1 Nephi 1. Just a few thoughts. In some ways, I wish I could read it more naively or unquestioningly, like I used to be able to in the past. I have a lot of questions and sometimes concerns about what I read, and it can sometimes be a distraction.

Today, the first sentence of the introduction to 1 Nephi bothered me: "An account of Lehi and his wife Sariah and his for sons". We know Nephi had sisters. What of their spiritual journey and their attitude to their father's requirement to leave Jerusalem? We know nothing about them. Did they chose to follow Nephi? Or L&L? Or were they more like Sariah lacking some faith, but following along anyway? They are just completely absent from any narrative here and that makes me a little sad.

When the text turns to Lehi's vision, I wondered if women ever get to have visions like this. Even if they do, they aren't recorded, and so it's hard to get our minds around the idea that experiences like this are possible for women. (or is this a special prophetic vision, which would of course be limited to a very narrow category of men?)

The other thought that I had was from v. 3 where Nephi tells us that the words he writes are TRUE. I wonder about truth. Yes, he is recording what he perceives is true. But, 1 Nephi is written at what, a 20 year distance? So, memory might be an issue. And I wondered if Nephi was able to use Lehi written account as a text from which to base his words. His perspective from a 20 year vantage point on L&L might be skewed, because he knows they never repent, so maybe he focuses on the negative in them and the bad choices they make. And then there's the women in his account. While what he writes may be true, he has certainly chosen to exclude certain things.

All that said, I was impressed with the power of the book that the Savior gave Lehi and the impact that it had on him. I read some other verses from the Bible about sacred books and how they are used. I love Jeremiah 15:16:

Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart; for I am called by they name, O Lord God of hosts.

I am going to do better with making scripture study a higher priority and more consistent habit.