Honesty

So today was 1 Nephi chapter 4. The story is the followup from the story I mentioned in the previous post: Lehi gets a vision and sends his sons into harm's way, back to Jerusalem. Laman and company are looking for an easy out, want to retain their treasure because I expect they plan to depose their parents and Nephi and go back to where life is good in Jerusalem. Nephi has a completely different plan - the one the Lord dictated - and he's staying with that plan. He offers all of the family's abandoned treasure to Laban for the plates and ends up with nothing but a run back to safety. Laman and company are now pissed, partly because they risked their life, and probably mostly because now they think they're poor.

So in this chapter Nephi goes and follows the word of the Lord, which involves killing Laban. I understand that many recoil at such a thought: that's one of the 10 commandments. Don't do that right?

Well, first, the Lord can give the commandment and he can make exceptions. Second, the Lord commanded that entire cities be wiped out when the Jews took Jerusalem. Not just one man - entire cities. The chapter outlines Nephi's reasoning, which sounds like the reasoning of a good man - a great man - choosing to follow the Lord's very difficult counsel.

I'm thinking that a person insisting that this is wrong and nothing will change their mind might be like Laman and Lemuel: they have how things should be in their head, and they set themselves as the ultimate decider of what's right and proper, and what they will allow to happen. The reality is that such a condition is a self deception. People don't decide what right and proper is - the Lord does. All people can do is try to align themselves with the Lord so they can get the proper guidance when the Lord needs to share it with them. And - be willing to do it even if it's not what their personal filters consider to be "correct".  You have to be very close to the Lord to get and follow that kind of direction. More than anything related to going through the motions, and more than "at least I tried".

But here is what struck me in this chapter. You have Laban's servant Zoram who is now in the picture. He mistook Nephi for Laban, and went with Nephi to go get the plates. Nephi and his brothers are afraid of Zoram because he can escape and go back to Jerusalem. If he talks - and he will - Lehi's family is finished. Zoram knows that, so he's afraid for his life.

It seems like it must have been easy back then - if you make an oath for something, that's what you guarantee will happen. Nephi said his family won't hurt Zoram if he goes with them, and Zoram agrees. Problem solved. Nephi said they ceased to worry after that point.

Life and business should be that way. What if someone knew, and could rest assured that if we said we'd do something that it would happen? Whether your word meant you'd deliver a pizza on Wednesday or whether it meant you'd abandon your life and follow a bunch of strangers on a boat they didn't know how to build to a continent that nobody knew existed? How much more successful in business and in personal relationships would we be?

There would be no excuses, no "I changed my mind", no "well you did this so I'm not doing that", and no "get over yourself, I didn't do it so deal with it".

Life is about relationships: with God, with our spouse, with family, with business relations, with friends. This is a great example for me how to be. It worked in 600 b.c. It can work for me now. The fact that others don't follow the same code doesn't change that I can choose to be as much of a man as I choose to be.

And when I fail? The Lord's got me covered. That's the other awesome part.