1 Nephi 7:1 Marriage and Families

Sometimes a post sits and stews in the back of my brain until something taps it and sets it free.  I read a great post today on the Deep Roots at Home website.  There is a poem by Louise B. Eavey from a mother's point of view concerning her son.  The poem ends, "Expectantly I yield to Thee The little boy Thou gavest me."

This touched my heart in many ways.  Our children are God's precious children, and as much as we love and cherish them, He loves them with His own perfect love that is far beyond our own.

In  The Family: A Proclamation to the World, it states "We...solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children"

and further down

"Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live."

The Lord provides for the physical safety of Lehi's family by having them leave Jerusalem.  He provides for their spiritual safety by having them retrieve the records contained on the brass plates.  Now the Lord provides for their future safety by calling Ishmael's family to go into the wilderness and to the promised land with them.  (It's interesting/amusing that this is one errand Laman and Lemuel do not murmur about).  Lehi's and Ishmael's children will marry and have families of their own, and their seed will continue long after Lehi and Ishmael are gone.

Do I recognize my family as being heaven-ordained?

How does that affect my daily interactions with my husband and children?

How well am I preparing my children to be husband/wives/parents?

1 Nephi 6:1-6 Pleasing unto God

I'm such a perfectionist.  I wrote this some time ago but didn't post it because it wasn't "perfect."  It was too short, too obvious, not good enough.  But something I read today by Darlene Schacht reminds me that God doesn't require us to be perfect. "Our God is a god of second chances, forgiveness and grace."

In this brief chapter, Nephi delineates what he will and will not include in his record. He will not include the genealogy or "account" of his father, since that is included elsewhere.

What he does include is a powerful witness of the love and power of God.

Knowing the plates are small, Nephi only wants to include "the things of God" that he may persuade men to "come unto God."  He knows that the things he writes will not be pleasing to the world, but they will be pleasing to God.

I first heard "I Want to be a Window to His Love" by Julie de Azevedo in college and immediately fell in love with it.  The first verse begin,

I want to be a window to His love
So when you look at me you will see Him
I want to be so pure and clear
That you won’t even know I’m here
‘Cause His love will shine brightly through me

You can listen to it and read the rest of the lyrics here:

I think that's what Nephi wanted, to be a window to God's love.

If the way I live my live is my record, how well am I filling it?  If my life is sacred and has value, am I filling it with that which is pleasing to God?  Is my life a testimony of what I say I believe, and is it leading my family and others to God?