Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Esteem As Of Great Worth

Some time ago I read these verses in 2 Nephi 33:
1 And now I, Nephi, cannot write all the things which were taught among my people; neither am I mighty in writing, like unto speaking; for when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.
 2 But behold, there are many that harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit, that it hath no place in them; wherefore, they cast many things away which are written and esteem them as things of naught.
 3 But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people. For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry.
I started to think a lot about what kinds of things I might include in my plates of brass that I would be passing down to future generations. What are the permanent and enduring lessons that I would take the time to etch into metal plates so that they would be preserved for all of my posterity to read? Am I learning the necessary lessons that I should be gleaning that will be of great worth not only to myself, but to my posterity? What are those lessons?

When you start asking those kinds of questions, I can appreciate a lot more why Nephi and other writers in the Book of Mormon apologize and almost timidly offer up their words for our reading. Knowing the gravity of your assignment adds a lot of pressure and would make anybody at least a little worried about how those messages are being received. On one hand, it is usually easy to know of the impact that lessons learned have on your own life, but how can you be sure that the message remains impactful to the person receiving it in written form only. Thank goodness for the Spirit, right?

This blog for a long time was a vehicle of expression for me about so many things - sometimes silly things, sports, politics, religious things, thoughts on dating, a travelogue, and more politics.

Going forward I hope that this can be a place for me to express some of my own thoughts and help me to clarify and crystallize my own feelings about things. Some of it will still touch on some of those different areas, but I'd like to stay closer to those things that I esteem to be of great worth, as Nephi says.

For anyone who's still out there, stay tuned.

1 comment:

Jessica Mitchell said...

I troll blogger daily to see what my friends are REALLY up to. Not just FB status posts and IG posts. So I love this. Also, this goes along perfectly with our FHE next week. We have been going through the Sharing the Gospel link on lds.org and focusing on social media. This week is "blogs" so you have me pumped up for my lesson. Thanks!!!