“I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.” (1 Nephi 1:1). Anyone who knows even a little about the story of Nephi might struggle to see his point when he makes the statement that he has been highly favored of the Lord in all his days. All of his days? What about the many separate days where Nephi’s brothers actually tried to kill him? Does Nephi really think that even on those days he was being highly favored of the lord? And I think the answer is yes, Nephi really does believe that. Let me give just one example. Nephi has been tied to the mast of the ship that he built for four days. He’s been tied so tightly that his wrists and ankles are swollen. His brothers have not only navigated the whole family into a terrible storm, but they’ve brought their parents to their deathbeds and threatened to throw Nephi’s wife and kids overboard. And when they finally realize that they’re all going to die and in desperation cut Nephi loose, what is the first thing that Nephi does? He doesn’t pray for the Lord to zap his idiot brothers with lightning. He doesn’t even pray to stop the storm. “Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions.” (1 Nephi 18:16). The first thing that Nephi does is he thanks God. Like. All day. I’ve always struggled with wrapping my head around this. I do not think that I have the strength of character to be tied up for four days, with my arms and legs so sore I can’t even stand up, watching as my whole family is almost destroyed, and then when I am freed, my first instinct is to praise God in thanks? I don’t think so. But I wish I did have the capacity to feel that much gratitude. It is easy to point out all of the legitimate reasons that we have to murmur and complain. It is easy to create a narrative where we are anything but favored of the Lord. But if Nephi can find a way to count his blessings while tied to a ship in the middle of a storm with the lives of his family members threatened, then maybe we can figure it out too. If we take a moment to think about it, Nephi did actually have a lot of things to be grateful for. The ship that was built by a complete amateur managed to tough out a four day storm without falling apart. He and his family managed to survive yet another attempt on his life, and this time with no quick, miraculous interventions from the Lord. His brothers’ anger got to boil higher and higher than ever, and the chances for them succeeding in their murderous intent had never been more assured, and yet they still failed. The Lord didn’t let any of them die. They were still headed to the Promised Land. It’s not always possible for us to scrounge up the force of will to count our blessings in the middle of a storm, but at least we have examples of people who did manage to find every single day reasons for which they could make the claim that they were highly favored of the Lord and actually mean it. If we go through a lot of days convinced that we are anything but highly favored of the Lord, we can put our trust in the Lord that we will eventually be able to look back and see the Hand of the Lord on even our most difficult days.
