Never Going Back

Many have heard the story in the bible of Lot and his wife. The moral of the story is to never look back at what God has commanded us to leave. We find a similar story in the Book of Mormon that teaches us to trust in God, and to go forward in faith. 

In the first book of Nephi, we hear the story of a family fathered by a man named Lehi. Lehi was a great prophet and a faithful servant of God. God told Lehi that he and his family needed to depart from the land of Jerusalem because of the great wickedness of the city, and it’s certain destruction. At this time, Lehi was the father of four sons, two faithful, and two a little bit lazy. Nephi and Sam were the faithful sons, and fully respected the will of the Lord to leave everything behind to go to the promised land that the Lord and provided for them. Many of us resemble Nephi and Sam as we are willing to leave everything behind and do what the Lord would have us to.

Unfortunately, the natural man can overpower us at times as cause us to resemble the attitude of Lehi’s other sons, Laman and Lemuel. Laman and Lemuel’s biggest downfall was their lack of faith, and their constant complaining. They didn’t believe it was necessary to leave Jerusalem, that such a city could never be destroyed. They thought, “Why should we leave our home, our possessions, and our friends when everything is going just fine?” They frequently murmured and always wanted to go back to Jerusalem.

We too sometimes have those tendencies. At times in life, we feel that all is well in Zion. We are grateful for our possessions, our relationships, and the many things which we enjoy. But sometimes the Lord has better plans for us which we often don’t see. We see our life going in a new direction, and may complain that we just want to go back to “Jerusalem.” We just want things to be the way they used to be. But if Laman and Lemuel in the Book of Mormon would have looked ahead to the day when they were in the promised land, maybe they wouldn’t have complained so much. If we could see the future and see the different paths that the Lord has set for us, would we be sad to leave “Jerusalem” behind? Or would we rather shout for joy and run down the path swiftly?

The Lord has a plan for everyone, and even though we might not understand why our lives are going in a certain direction, and why we have to deal with hard times, we can be rest assured that if we are faithful, we will soon arrive to the promised land, wherein, we will never want to go back to “Jerusalem.”