Lehi had been preaching the destruction of Jerusalem unless they repent. As a result the people wanted to kill him and his family. The Lord commanded Lehi and his family to leave Jerusalem. The leave all of their riches and comforts and go into the wilderness which contains many wild animals and bandits.
How would you feel if you were in a similar situation?
I think that most people would find this situation hard and difficult. It would take an enormant amount of faith and sincere prayer to dispel the fear and nervousness that this situation would ultimately cause.
Show map of "potential" route that Lehi and his family took.
Obedience is the act of following the commands of a person who has stewardship over you. Murmuring means to complain against or defy a person that has stewardship over you. A person can be doing what someone asks them to do and still be murmuring. Laman and Lemuel were good examples of this. They typically did as their father asked though they complained about it, and only did the bare minimum. They did not have the faith in the words of their father to know that the Lord was directing their activities.
1 Nephi 3:7
This scripture shows Nephi's faith in that what his father asked them to do was coming from the Lord. He first told his father that he will go and do what is asked and while doing so says 'What the Lord commanded" thus he is expressing his faith in his father that what was being asked of Nephi was coming from the Lord through his father. Then he expresses his faith in the Lord in being able to accomlish this task. He said "...for I know that the Lord would not give commandments until the childrent of men save he should prepare a way for them to accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." Prior to departing he already had faith that they would be successful in completing this task and that the Lord would prepare the way. I am sure that this helped to erase any fear that he might have had otherwise since he believe that a higher force was controling the events and that they would turn out well.
Elder H. Ross Workman of the Seventy explained
"murmuring consists of three steps, each leading to the next in a descending path to disobedient." First, when people murmur they begin to question. They question "first in their own minds and then [plant] questions in the minds of others." Second, those who murmur begin to "rationalize and excuse themselves from doing what they [have] been instructed to do....Thus, they [make] an excuse for disobedience." Their excuses lead to the third step: "Slothfulness in following the commandment."President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency talked about the need for Prayer and the faith to obey the Lord's commandments
"Whoever we are, however difficult our circumstances, we can know that what our Father commands we do to qualify for the blessings of eternal life will not be beyond us...."Are callings always convenient?
No they are not always convenient and some callings might even create a bit of fear in us. Personally I have no desire to ever be a Bishopric member. I have personally seen what they do and the demands, spritual, emptional and temporal, are extremly high. I truly believe that man by himself could never uphold that calling. It would require assistance from the Lord to uphold these servants.
We are rarely asked in the church what we want to do. We are usually asked to do somethign that would stretch us. Sometimes in ways that we do not anticipate. When I servered as an assistant ward clerk I was amazed at the number of callings that are turned down. Now I am not privy to any of those conversations, nor do I ever want to be, so I have no idea what might be going on in their heads that leads to the turning down of these callings. I believe that the Lord calls us for a reason and if we have sufficient faith that the Lord would provide a way for us to accomplish what he is asking us to do. In a previous ward I knew a Bishop that worked out of town all week and was only in town on the weekends. His calling was tough and he had to get creative to make it work though he was a wonderful bishop. We may think that our schedule is such that we could not possibly accept a specific calling. We may think that we are not up to the task. We might say that it would put a hardship on our family. I know that the Lord calls us for a reason and if he called us then we would be able to someway fill the calling. The only think that should keep us, in my oppinion, that should keep us from accepting a calling is unworthyness.
How can you prepare youself to accept a calling?
First and foremost is being worthy. We must strive to keep our lives in harmony with the Gospel. Not only will this help to keep us on the path towards salvation but it will also help to prepare us to fill what ever calling the Lord has for us when he has it for us.
President Joseph F. Smith taught:
"The man who stays with the kingdom of god, the man who is true to this people, the man who keeps himself pure and unspotted from the world, is the man tha God will uphold, that he will sustain, and that will prosper in the land, whether he be in the enjoyment of his liberty or be confined in prison cells, it makes no difference where he is, he will come out all right" (Gospel Doctrine, 5th Edition [1939], 257).Elder Donald L. Staheli taught:
"When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest in that moment God will endow us with power"
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