I realized today, I could write them down anyway.
Today our lesson was comparing Nephi to Laman/Lemuel. As you can expect it was a "Nephi is good because..." list vs. a "Laman/Lemuel are bad because...." list.
At one point, a sister in the class confessed to relating more with L/L's murmuring than with Nephi's quick obedience.
Soon after, our teacher pointed out that as soon as God asked Nephi to build a boat, his response was immediately 'I will go and do as thou asks' (paraphrasing). Our teacher expressed surprise at Nephi's fast and faithful response. He said had he been given the same charge, his first response would be 'How the heck am I going to build a boat!?'
So, here is where I would go back and chime in. I think we've set up Nephi as being a little too perfect. The Book of Nephi is not a complete view of the inner-workings of Nephi's mind. If God were to ask me to build a boat, I think it's fine, and totally human to think first 'How the heck am I going to build a boat?'
Faith is an action. From Nephi's words, we believe Nephi had unwavering faith. I think we can assume that between the time Nephi received revelation about building a boat, and his prayerful response to the Lord that he would obey, Nephi was only human. He could have been thinking a hundred different things. I don't want to take away from the good example set by Nephi in this story; just point out the possibility that accepting God's words could have been a process for Nephi. But like they say, thoughts lead to actions; and his action was obedience.
My favorite scripture story is Esther. The reason is Esther 4:11. Her uncle Mordecai has asked that she speak to the king on behalf of the Jews. Her first response is that she will most likely die if she tries. She uses valuable time to send that message to her uncle and wait for a response. This is, oh, so very human. Of course she was worried for her own life. Who wouldn't be? In the end, she was courageous and a heroine because she risked her life anyway. But this story is more real to me than any other.
I love that the scriptures can teach us so much. Many many lessons we learn from many stories. Even many lessons from one story. Today, had I been a faster thinker, I would have tried to remind those around me that because I believe the scriptures are true stories of real people, it's ok to see them as real people. No one is really perfect.
