Do you ever feel like life just hits you with one thing after another?
This is how Nephi might have felt during a critical time in his family’s journey through the wilderness.
Each of us has our own difficult journeys in the “wilderness.” Some journeys are so difficult that it might even seem unbearable at times.
Contention and confusion everywhere.
The guilty taking the truth to be hard.
Sickness. Sadness.
Anguish of mind, body, and spirit.
Loved ones passing away mid-journey.
Feeling lost and forgotten.
Affliction, hunger, thirst, and fatigue.
Impossible expectations. (Wait what? You want me to build a ship?)
These are the very real emotions that Nephi is documenting. So it’s no mystery why he draws upon the words of the Lord given to Isaiah in the middle of this journey:
“Yet will I not forget thee. … Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (1 Nephi 21:15–16).
Out of these terrible trials, Nephi recounts that in the midst of our hardest times, there will often be a “Liahona” dropped at our proverbial door to guide us through the wilderness, oceans, and storms of life.
Nephi reframes his pain, struggles, and experience:
“Great were the blessings of the Lord upon us” (1 Nephi 17:2).
“He doth nourish [us], and strengthen [us], and provide means” (1 Nephi 17:3).
God will teach us the most during our hardest days in the “wilderness.” When we think He is furthest from us, that is when He is closest to us.
What have you learned during your hardest times in life?
—Greg
Friend of the Young Men General Presidency