-repentance
is the key for healing. Great wounds can
be soothed when one seeks forgiveness and the other forgives. It brings two parties together. When sin
sends a destructive ripple across the lives of many people, repentance and
forgiveness can counter the ecology of sin and hurt.
“I did frankly forgive them…”
-Nephi
quickly forgave them for attempting to take his life. This level of character is more than I can
fathom from a man/woman. They had tried
to murder him and he frankly forgives them, the similarity to how our
Father must also willingly forgive is clear.
“they would pray unto… God for
forgiveness…”
-when we sin, even when the sin appears to be strictly a
wrong committed by one mortal against another, we affront God. This is due to a few reasons:
1. you cannot
cross God’s child without crossing Him.
2. each of us has
elements of deity (even as a mortal, to offend a person is to also offend the
part of deity within them.
3. If “when in the
service of fellow beings we are only in the service of God”, surely the logic
applies with the inverse: when we
transgress against fellow beings we are only transgressing against God.
4. It is
ultimately His law that was broken. I
did not mandate that “man should not kill, or anything like unto it,” even
though I might be the victim if the law is broken. God the Father is the origin of the Law! Therefore it is to him that we must
ultimately answer.
“after they had done praying… we did again
travel…”
-repentance and cleansing the inner vessel is of
paramount importance that it should be done as soon after the offense as
possible. Before we get on with the more
mundane or pressing demands of life we should stop, prostrate our self before
God and take the steps necessary to make our lives right with Him. The party did not resume their journey until
supplication before God for forgiveness was accomplished. I don’t think that this particular sequence
of events was accidental –it has meaning.
“they did so (prayed for forgiveness)”
-of all the miraculous events taking place during the two
trips back to Jerusalem, this one may be the most significant and inspiring to
us. Laman and Lemuel admitted the error
of their rebellious actions, humbled themselves and petitioned the Lord for
forgiveness. The possibility that people
can change and their subsequent actions in pursuit of that change provides hope
for ourselves and should fill us with hope for others.
-this was a crossroad for Laman and Lemuel. This is not a small point nor should it be
minimized. Clearly the change did not
stick but at this moment they chose the right and put themselves in position to
be close to God.
“after they had done praying unto the Lord
we did again travel on our journey”
-as we walk through mortality we will act contrary to
God’s will and standards. This encountr
with sin is the universal human experience.
Our progress and relationship with God ceases –or is significantly
diminished at the least. We remain at a
distance, at a standstill until we fix the error. This always includes prayer and supplication
for forgivness which itself pre-requires humility, recognition, confession and
a desire to improve. Once we are “done”
with cleaning up the mess that we’ve made (to the extent we are able) we can
begin again to travel on our journey toward God and our better, potential self.
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