Our church group (stake) had a women's conference today. One of the leaders (the stake president) shared a thought that struck a chord with me. I thought I'd share it. He was referring to the early books in The Book of Mormon (1 and 2 Nephi) where we read the story of Lehi's family leaving Jerusalem. He read 1 Ne. 17:45, which is where Nephi tells his disobedient brothers that they are "past feeling". He said he has often wondered why the elder brothers had such a hard time following their father and feeling the influence of the Lord in their lives. Then he said he had discovered a word that appeared a lot in 1 and 2 Nephi, so often that he counted it. The word is murmur and he thought he'd counted it 37 times (I haven't counted to be sure). He then said, "That is what hardened Laman and Lemuel's hearts. They always complained. Don't murmur." There was more, about how our little ones hear our complaints and then they can't feel the spirit either.
I felt guilty. This is something I've been working on for awhile now, but it is such an easy thing to slip back into. Even when I control my tongue, I often catch myself thinking critical thoughts. I am committing now to doing even better and one thing I will do is replace my negative thought with a positive one. How about you--are there any practical suggestions you have for rooting out thoughts and words of criticism or complaint? I am particularly referring to things of the spirit, or church-related issues.
6 comments:
Very interesting analysis. I think it noteworthy that Sariah and Lehi, who also complained at one point, were still faithful overall and able to nip the practice in the bud. I'm no expert, but one thing I've noticed that works is shifting my focus from myself to others. When in conversation, I try to ask lots of questions instead of talking about myself. It seems to minimize the importance of my concerns, thereby giving me less to complain about. That being said, Tim still gets an earful quite regularly. A habit I truly need to work on.
Okay, okay, I'll do better too.
Good point about Lehi and Sariah--so you're saying I'm not done for? :)
Me too. Too often, though I intend to do the right thing, my murmuring is usually a prelude to it. It helps me when I catch myself to immediately replace it, or follow it with three or four positive remarks. It doesn't make my complaining any less remembered or bad, but it seems to help invite the spirit back or something.
But life is so hard, and my kids are naughty, my calling is demanding, my neighbors have more money than we do, I have so much laundry, it gets to hot here, I miss my family, I used to be skinnier...WHAT???? Oh we're not supposed to murmer? Hmmm I'll have to work on that.
We just had an FHE about this, well, kind of about this. We are now using the phrase "dragon breath" to help members of our family realize bad words, complaints, mean names, etc. are coming out of their mouths. We want our words to be fresh like toothpaste. It's actually working for me to just think of that analogy. What if the bad things that come out of my mouth had a physical side -- a bad smell. Would I still say them? Probably not. Reminds me of Elder Holland's talk from a few conferences ago.
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