Week One: 1 Nephi 2:16

I’m making a blog record my thoughts on what I studied each week as part of my Teachings and Doctrines of the Book of Mormon class. For reference, this is what I was asked to write down each week:

• Identify a scripture passage from the week and briefly describe its context
• Identify at least one principle or insight you found in that scripture and explain its significance
• Describe how we could apply that teaching to us today

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This week we read from the title page through 1 Nephi 7 in Teachings and Doctrines of the Book of Mormon. My favorite passage this week was 1 Nephi 2:16.

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16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers.

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Lehi and his family had all moved out into the wilderness after being commanded by the Lord. Laman and Lemuel didn’t believe in what their father was teaching them, but Nephi decided he wanted to know about God and what their father taught so he prayed for the Lord to soften his heart. He was given confirmation about what Lehi taught him even to the extent that Nephi told his brothers to try the same thing. Laman and Lemuel still ignored the gospel.

I’ve been thinking about this exact thing recently. Belief seems like something that just happens, but it isn’t. Nephi wanted to believe and prayed to be able to understand and believe what his father taught him. Belief and faith are choices that can then be confirmed by the spirit, in my experience. I don’t think I know many (if any) people who believe in the gospel but don’t want to. 

Belief and faith and revelation all come from desire and work. We have to expose ourselves to what we want to believe in and open ourselves up to the Lord and the Spirit so that we can receive. For a long time I didn’t put an effort into having faith and I didn’t care about believing what my parents and church taught me and I wondered why I didn’t like church and why it didn’t make me happy the way people told me it would. I eventually realized that it’s because I wasn’t making an effort to believe. I didn’t realize that I would have to or that I could choose to believe in the gospel to find the happiness and blessings from it. It takes doing all the stuff like praying and reading scriptures, but you have to do those things while choosing to believe.

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We were also asked to come up with a SMART goal to work on this semester that will result in something tangible and help us feel more connected to the Lord. This was my project proposal:

S- I want to make a portrait every week. I want to work on praying and seeking guidance on all areas of my life, including creative work. So I will reach out to someone and plan a time to photograph them. I will also spend time taking the photograph, working on editing it, and print all of the portraits out (2 copies: one to gift to the individual I photograph and one to keep for a physical portfolio of this project).

M- My numeral goal is to produce 1 (one) finished photograph every week (so 14 for every week starting this week and ending before finals week). I want to do these portraits prayerfully, so I will pray about who I should photograph and for charity and understanding to photograph them and love them and see them the way the Lord does. It won't be busy work because this is a project that sounds fun and interesting to me and it's been something I've been meaning to do for a while now anyway but this will give me more structure and help motivate me to do it.

A- I am studying photography so this is something I know I can do even if I usually put my personal projects to the side during the semester. I will know I am finished by working hard on my portrait every week and ending each week with 1 finished portrait.

R- I think this project is so exciting because I haven't ever done a creative project like this with the end goal being something so spiritual. It will also push me to think more who I need to serve and think about each week and to see if I can capture a photo of who someone is rather than just a pretty photo of that person.

T- This project will help me academically as I'm preparing for a portfolio review in June, but it will also help develop charity and learn to ask for divine guidance in all aspects of my life as I feel kind of lost about what to do next in life. This will push me outside of what I'm accustomed to asking for guidance on.