Building a Ship

Jeffrey and I were talking and thinking about the principle of obtaining promises from the Lord. Jeffrey was pointing out the fact that several people have talked about the promises in their patriarchal blessings that have never been fulfilled. It seems to me that there are a least two reasons this happens. One is the consequences of our own actions and the other is the consequences of others actions.

What happens when a young man gets a blessing that says he will go on a mission but decides to live another lifestyle? He doesn’t get the blessings involved in serving a mission. But the consequences will extend to those he didn’t teach and maybe to a young woman that was promised she would be married to a worthy elder. Her life will take another road than the one the Lord had set up.

What happens when a young woman is promised educational opportunities but is pressured to forget it for various reasons? Her life will take a different road and the experiences she was suppose to have and bless other people’s lives will be postponed or carried out in a different way.  I believe very strongly that the Lord will make up those blessings to those who are faithful. He will even change circumstances so that promised blessings can be obtained. We do know that in His day all will be made whole.

Flowers in Alaska

Reading in 1 Nephi 17 the story about the promises made to Nephi that he would construct a ship and carry his family and people to another land. Nephi didn’t look around for the ship; he asks the Lord where he can go to make tools to build his ship that was promised. He understood the principle of seeking for blessings and promises. This is such an important principle in obtaining the promises I am given. I have to seek, search and figure out how to make the promises given to me come true.

This is my live, my choices, and my quest, if I don’t take advantage of opportunities and ask for the Lord’s help in what I’m are doing, I won’t get the blessings promised. Nephi could have stayed in the Land of Bountiful that they had discovered, but a few chapters later we can see how numerous and prosperous this group of people would become and Bountiful just wouldn’t be big enough in years later. The Lord had a plan in mind and if Nephi hadn’t constructed a ship, I’m sure the Lord would have asked another to do it. But years would have been wasted and one of consequences would have been that Lehi would never have seen his promised land.

I want All the blessings I have been promised…….I just have to go out and get them.