“They said they knew they were going to get married after dating for only one week!”
Isn’t it CRAZY sometimes to think about how people in very similar circumstances can receive completely different responses to their prayers?
A young couple gets married, and everyone has advice on how long they should or shouldn’t wait to have a kid, based on their own experiences and personal answers.
Parents pray together about how to deal with a specific child, and receive an answer that seems completely incomprehensible to someone else disciplining their own child.
A Bishop prays and feels that the ward should have certain initiatives or priorities, even though another Bishop has completely different ideas for his ward.
So who is wrong, and who is right?
Nephi clarified this for us in a beautiful, but often complicated lesson.
“I was led by the Spirit”.
Two people, praying for exactly the same advice, may receive two completely different answers. And if they have the Spirit with them, this is completely fine.
Two mothers may pray. One mother may get a full-time job, and one mother may stay with her kids full-time. As long as both are staying close to the Spirit and listening to their personal promptings, this is exactly how it should be.
It is sometimes a little difficult to read the account of Nephi slaying King Laban. How could this make sense? Couldn’t there have been another way for Nephi to obtain these important plates?
But when it comes down to it, Nephi reminds us:
“I was led by the Spirit”.
The answer he received in that moment was meant exactly for him in that situation. And since he was close to the Spirit, that was clearly the right thing for him to do. No concerns about it.
Sometimes it can be hard to see when other people act on different promptings than we receive.
But Nephi followed the personal instructions he was given, no matter how difficult they were for him to follow.
And I think our lives are best lived when we stop worrying so much about and comparing the decisions other people are making, and instead focus on this big question:
Do I have the Spirit with me?
And if we do, that’s all that matters.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
2 Responses
I love your emails. You should do this as a quick podcast. I’d love to be able to listen while I’m getting ready in the morning ????
That’s a great idea! I’ll keep that in mind ???? Thanks for reading!