ship builders

1 Nephi 17:8+

How often are we asked to buld a ship?

All the time. Ships are a major part of the plan. Family relationships / kinship, friendships, citizenship, membership, partnership. Those are all ways we interact with others. How we love, serve, lift, and share eith each other and in each other's lives. 

Apprenticeship, internship, mastership, workmanship, scholarship, and craftsmanship are all ships about learning, growing, changing, and becoming a better person.

Ownership. This one is really important. Because we have the freedom to choose, we own our eternity. We own our choices and consequences. We own our failures and victories. I think I says this at leadt once a day to someone, "You control you. You can't change anyone else. You can ony change you. You are responsible for your actions no matter what anyone says or does around or to you. You are the only one responsible for your choices."  

That brings us to a more important ownership, God created us and Jesus Christ paid the ransom for each of us. God owns us, our lives. He gave it to us and sustains it everyday. 

Psalm 24:1

1 Chronicles 29:14

1 Corinthians 6:9

Mosiah 2:21

John 3:16

2 Nephi 2:26-27

(There are too many scriptures to list. Find, mark, and cross reference the ones you find.)

The interesting thing about Christ owning us is that he doesn’t force it upon us. He has paid for each of us but only invites us to accept Him. The price is paid no matter what. If we don’t accept, we'll have to pay it again. Although I am a boisterous, head strong woman, I bow gratefully at the feet of my Savior and gratefully call Him Master. I gladly strive to build His ownership of my life.  

This brings a whole new meaning and application as I read about Nephi building the ship.

that's literally the plan

1 Nephi 17:14 . . . .ye shall know that I, the Lord, am God; and that I, the Lord, did deliver you from destruction. . .

Newsflash: You were never meant to do this by yourself. We rejoiced for the plan of Salvation that gave us a Savior. We chose to follow Jesus and fought by His side to keep that plan in place. So often, we still try to do things on our own. Silly, isn't it? You are supposed to rely on the Lord. That's the plan. That has always been the agreement.  

"Do your best and trust the rest."

- Mom

nephi's advantage

"I have often thought that Nephi’s being bound with cords and beaten by rods must have been more tolerable to him than listening to Laman and Lemuel’s constant murmuring. Surely he must have said at least once, “Hit me one more time. I can still hear you.” Yes, life has its problems, and yes, there are negative things to face, but please accept one of Elder Holland’s maxims for living—no misfortune is so bad that whining about it won’t make it worse."

The Tongue of Angels  

By Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

1 Nephi 3:28-31

I think every mom gets that too.  

Before the main part of the journey begins, Nephi is given an advantage. He tried to share it. Sam and Zoram accept the advantage from Nephi. It still required work and faith but it had to help them through all the trials. Here it is: Nephi has seen it all.  

1 Nephi 12:1

He saw his posterity and the posterity of his brothers and Zoram in the land of promise. He knows they make it. He knows that they not only survive but thrive.

It feels a little like a patriarchal blessing. We've been made promises. We just have to remain faithful, repent, and correct our course when necessary. The promises are there waiting for us. We just have to go and do.

1 Nephi 3:7

everybody's a slacker sometimes

1 Nephi 16:18-23

And it came to pass that everything went wrong. Everyone was tired, and hungry, and cranky so they started complaining. 

And it came to pass that Nephi said, "Heck if I'm just sittin' here complaining. Imma make a bow."

And it came to pass that Nephi went to his fam and said, "Oi! Sitting here moaning isn’t fixing things. Y'all need to shape up or we're gon die up in here!"

And it came to pass that Nephi's words woke everybody up and got them on the right track again. They humbled themselves before the Lord and remembered what they were supposed to be doing in the first place.

And it came to pass that God said, "Did you forget what you were doing? Get back over by me, ya slackers. Y'all aren't gonna have it easy all the dang time so buck up and think Celestial."

And it came to pass that after God reminded them to stop being slackers, they did stop being slackers. Lehi looked at the ball. The ball pointed the way. Nephi pointed his new bow and sharp stick at things. Things became food. They made dinber and then no one was hangey anymore. They were all grateful and agreed they shouldn't ever be complaining slackers again.

And it came to pass more bad stuff happened and the complaining started again.

It's a good thing God is patient because I'm a slacker way too often. I'm really grateful that I can keep fixing my 'tude and come back to try again . . .and again . . .and again . . .

use the difficulty

I'm prepping a lesson for Sunday school and this is one of the sub-topics:

2 Nephi 2:1–4, 6–25 

God can turn my trials into blessings.

It's a common gospel topic. Usually, I reflect on the people I've been able to help through the death if loved ones because of lessons I learned at the passing of my dear family members. This time, a new association was made.  

My mindless Facebook scrolling is to thank for this. A video of an interview with Michael Caine. (Scrooge in Muppet Christmas Carol is my favorite thing he's done. I'm sure that would disappoint him terribly.)  

In this interview he tells of a time he was rehearsing a play. He was supposed to enter a scene where a husband and wife were fighting. Their fight was completely improvised and they had started throwing things. A chair had lodged in the door that he was supposed to come through blocking it. When he peeked out and asked the director what to do, the director said to "use the difficulty". If it was a comedy, trip over the chair, for a dramatic scene he should pick it up and smash it.  

Micheal said he adopted this into his real life as well. Whatever trials come up, his family asks themselves how they can use the difficulty or how they can turn it to get something out of it. He said that even if you only get 1/4 of a percent advantage out of it you're ahead and you didn't let it get you down. If that's not a hospel principle fpund in the wild, I don't know what is.

Use the difficulty 

- Michael Caine

We have the advantage of God guiding and inspiring us. He will always show us how to use the difficulty.   

I can't upload the video so here's a link to where I found it: https://youtu.be/GAB89fOdA-I?si=991Nqqm6tY9Oq_Wb

could you reach that for me, please?

She is short and cannot reach to the high shelves unless she uses a chair or ladder, but I can reach the things from high shelves for her because I am taller than her. Taking our Savior’s yoke upon us is like that. As we yoke ourselves to Him, we can do things we couldn’t do on our own because He can do the things we cannot do for ourselves.

Do You Want to Be Happy?  

By Elder Yoon Hwan Choi

First, Elder Choi is about 5'11", about the same height as Elder Anderson. You're welcome.

As a short person, I appreciate tall people willing to reach things down for me. Of course, the Atonement is infinitely more helpful than someone reaching something down to you. It does speak to our small part though. Part of yoking ourselves to the Lord is accepting His call to care for each other. Even the smallest acts of kindness are part of His work.

earthquake resistant

"I cannot teach you how to design a building that is against, that is ‘anti-’ or that is opposed to, an earthquake. This makes no sense,” he said, “because earthquakes will occur anyway, whether we like it or not.” Then he added, “What I can teach you is how to design structures that are seismic-resistant, structures that can resist the forces coming from an earthquake, so that the structure remains standing without suffering any serious damage and can then continue offering the service for which it had been conceived.”

Building a Life Resistant to the Adversary  

By Elder Jorge F. Zeballos

1 Nephi 1:1

I loved this analogy. Earthquakes are going to happen. They sure happened in nephi's life a lot. Reflecting back on his life in 1 nephi 1:1 he calls it, "having seen many afflictions in the course of my days". That's how life is. 

2 Nephi 2:26–27

Through it all, we have choices to make. The Lord provides scriptures, prophets, and the Holy Ghost to teach us how to be "affliction resistant" and "temptation resistant".  

Jeremiah 1:5

Abraham 3:22-23

As we build ourselves and our testimonies according to God’s design, we can remain standing even through the earthquakes in our lives. We can continue and fulfill the purpose the Lord has for us.