Tender Mercies

CS Lewis Quote of the Week [For those who want to do whatever they want with no consequences:] A God who did not regard [our bad behavior] with unappeasable distaste would not be a good being. We cannot even wish for such a God— it is like wishing that every nose in the universe were abolished, that smell of hay or roses or the sea should never again delight any creature, because our own breath happens to stink The Problem of Pain, p. 53

Dream Movie DNE

Israel, BC Chronicles: 36

Eternal Patterns Lehi’s Vision of how to Save his Family Wilderness Liahona Broken Bow Promised Land Tree of Life Vision (How to Save Family) Wilderness Iron Rod Mists of darkness Tree of Life Premortal Life (How to Save Family) Earthlife (Lone and Dreary) Gifts of the Spirit Trials Spirit Paradise

Look more closely 1 Nephi 1: 20 When does a “tender mercy” not look like a tender mercy?

Catherine Thomas " Deliverance from such trouble is a major theme of the Book of Mormon. A computer count shows that the words derived from deliver occur more than 200 times in the 531 pages of the Book of Mormon, signifying the importance of the principle. Thus we repeatedly learn that God will provide some deliverance from trouble if we will but turn to Him. The Book of Mormon speaks to all ages, and its principles apply to people everywhere. No one can ever have a dilemma that the Lord cannot turn into some form of deliverance Sidney Sperry Symposium

“Deliverance” to Laman and Lemual 1 Nephi 2: 11,12

Murmuring 101 Elder Maxwell Murmuring can also be noisy enough that it drowns out the various spiritual signals to us, signals which tell us in some cases to quit soaking ourselves indulgently in the hot tubs of self-pity! Ensign, November 1989, p. 85.)

Nephi and Laban I Nephi 4 Nephi could have left out the details of this story. Why did he leave this in?

Elder Holland We don't know why those plates could not have been obtained some other way—perhaps accidently left at the plate polishers one night, or maybe falling off the back of Laban's chariot on a Sabbath afternoon drive. For that matter, why didn't Nephi just leave this story out of the book altogether? Why didn't he say something like, "And after much effort and anguish of spirit, I did obtain the plates of Laban and did depart into the wilderness unto the tent of my father"? At the very least he might have buried the account somewhere in the Isaiah chapters, thus guaranteeing that it would have gone undiscovered up to this very day. But there it is, squarely in the beginning of the book, page eight, where even the most casual reader will see it—and must deal with it. It is not intended that either Nephi or we be spared the struggle of this account. I believe that story was placed in the very opening verses of a 531- page book and then told in painfully specific detail in order to focus every reader of that record on the absolutely fundamental gospel issue of obedience and submission to the communicated will of the Lord. If Nephi cannot yield to this terribly painful command, if he cannot bring himself to obey, then it is entirely probable that he can never succeed or survive in the tasks that lie just ahead. (On Earth As It Is in Heaven ( 1989))