One of the blessings of the Book of Mormon is the realness of the people. The descriptions of their feelings during challenging times are authentic and can be very instructive. One of my favorite women in scripture is our sister Sariah, the wife of the Prophet Lehi. My experience is certainly not her experience. She has been asked by the Lord, through her husband, to give up all she has, except her children, and a handful of necessities and head for the wilderness. Her supportive feelings turn to terror when her sons, who have gone on an errand for the Lord, fail to return home as planned. Though her experience is extreme, many of us can relate on some level to her willingness one minute, to surrender so much to the Lord, and another minute, being paralyzed with fear that she might have lost it all.
Her son Nephi describes the situation, as he finds it, as he and his brothers return home with their mission accomplished. “And it came to pass that after we had come down into the wilderness unto our father, behold, he was filled with joy, and also my mother, Sariah, was exceedingly glad, for she truly had mourned because of us. For she had supposed that we had perished in the wilderness; and she also had complained against my father, telling him that he was a visionary man; saying: Behold thou hast led us forth from the land of our inheritance, and my sons are no more, and we perish in the wilderness.” (1 Nephi 5:1)
There are probably many things to be learned from the description of Sariah’s crisis of faith. This is an insight that came to me as I studied using my dictionary as a tool for greater understanding
The first thing that came to mind as I read Sariah’s experience was a personal question. “What gets me into spiritual trouble? I don’t think there are wasted words in scripture. As I searched the verses of the story for some answer this phrase stood out to me, “For she had supposed…”
What does it mean to “suppose?” I wondered. I looked it up and here’s what I found:
To “suppose” is to assume to be true, to expect, to think probable, to view a plausible or likely, to draw an inference from slight or inadequate evidence, to take for granted especially on trivial or inadequate grounds, to assume, imagine, suspect, guess, conjecture, presume, surmise, pretend or speculate.(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
The word “suppose” is such a seeming innocent little verb. Could it possibly be that our propensity for Godless “supposing” is the foundation for Godless fear, fear that leads us to whine, and complain, and sit down in the middle of the road of progress and eat a cake, or take a pill, or head for the mall.
Supposing is what I do out of fear. “Supposing” leads to uneducated worry, which leads to uneducated complaining, which leads to any number of uneducated choices. Today, instead of “supposing” in matters large and small I want to turn to my all- knowing Savior, Jesus Christ. Why should weary myself with “supposing” when I can turn to “The Truth!”
By Nannette W.
Posted Monday, November 17, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Nannette W. All right reserved.
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