And My Father Dwelt in a Tent

I woke up earlier than I had planned this morning. As I laid in bed my mind kept going back to a scripture that my husband and I had read the other day. It is one of my favorite scriptures for the reason that I think it is usually overlooked and I feel like it is full of information for us. For those who are not familiar with the Book of Mormon I can give a little background before I discuss my thoughts on this scripture and for those who are familiar it can be a quick refresher.
The man writing this is named Nephi. He has a prophet for a father named Lehi. He also has three older brothers, two who doubt what his father says and one who goes along with Lehi and Nephi. And I can't leave out their wonderful mother Sariah. Anyway, this family was a very rich family in Jerusalem. Lehi had a vision that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed so Lehi warned the people of Jerusalem who, of course, didn't listen to him. For his protection from the angry people and for protection for his family from the destruction, they fled to the wilderness.
Now here are my thoughts on this scripture:

2 Nephi 2:15 "And my father dwelt in a tent."

I think this verse should be read with the emphasis on the words my and dwelt. As in "MY father DWELT in a tent."

I'm almost positive that had Nephi not been trying to engrave on brass plates and had a computer to type on that verse would have read "And my father (the city boy, with all the riches and comforts in the world, who never would have been caught dead living in the dust dirt of the wilderness) dwelt (not camped or hung out for awhile but LIVED) in a tent.


I think this shows us how Lehi was an example to Nephi. Nephi knew that what his father was telling them had to be true because he was living in a tent and there would be no chance that would be happening unless his father thought it was necessary to save his family.



I like to use this verse as a reminder that all the things the Lord has asked me to do has never been as difficult as moving from my comforts and living in a tent. And since that is the case then I must be willing to do all the small things that I am asked to do. It also makes it much easier because then I think "at least I'm not having to live in a tent in the wilderness!"



And then I'm reminded by the famous verse in the next chapter that says:



"I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commanded them."



Today is good because:

...of the scriptures!!

The Idea

So, I went to an event titled Time Out for Women and at this event they encouraged the women in attendance to BECOME something. So I decided to take this challenge, first I thought about the presenter who became a runner in response to this challenge. Then I thought about how much I didn't want to run. Instead I continued to listen as the other presenters talked about their challenges. One thing kept jumping out at me and that was to focus on how Life is Good. Then the idea came to me, I would become a blogger. That had to be way easier than running! The idea behind the blog would be how Life is Good. We live in a not-always-so-great world, but there are so many good things that I think we forget about because the bad always seems to overshadow them. My purpose in becoming a blogger is to bring focus back to those good things. I don't know that anyone else will care what I am writing about, but I know that focusing on the good things in my life will help me and my family. So if I am the only one who reads this (and my very supportive husband) then that's fine. So let's start this Life Uplifted thing:

Life is good today because:

 ...when I came home from this event my beautiful 2 year old ran up to me and said, "Mommy I need to give you a big hug and a big kiss cuz you were gone!" Talk about the best part of life!!

... I got to spend the afternoon out with my husband and a friend for a movie and dinner.

...of Cold Stone ice cream. YUM!!

Life will be great today if BYU can win this rivalry game. Guess that part will have to be seen later.