What kind of wake-up call do you need? When you’re doing something the wrong way or doing the wrong thing entirely, or maybe not doing something you should, what kind of signals get your attention and motivate you to change?
As Lehi’s family sailed across the ocean, contention once again flared up between the brothers. Irritated at Nephi, Laman and Lemuel tied him up for four days. In the end, they set him free when a storm became so severe that they thought they were going to die, but Nephi lists a series of other events which could have persuaded them earlier if they had been willing to listen:
- Their father had spoken to them, and their parents were visibly distraught (1 Nephi 18:17-18).
- Their youngest brothers, Jacob and Joseph, were suffering because of the sorrow of their mother (1 Nephi 18:19).
- Nephi’s wife and children pleaded tearfully and prayed for his release (1 Nephi 18:19).
- The Liahona stopped working, and they didn’t know where to steer the ship (1 Nephi 18:12-13).
I don’t know when each of these events happened, but the point is that Laman and Lemuel had many opportunities to rectify the situation if they had been willing to listen. On this occasion, only the fear of death could change their behavior:
There was nothing save it were the power of God, which threatened them with destruction, could soften their hearts; wherefore, when they saw that they were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea they repented of the thing which they had done, insomuch that they loosed me.
1 Nephi 18:20
If a teacher encourages you to work harder, how do you respond? What if you get a bad grade on a test? What if you flunk the class? At what point are you willing to heed the signals and take the necessary remediative action?
I suspect we can all think of occasions when we save ourselves a lot of grief by responding to gentle nudges as we start to get off course instead of waiting for things to get worse.
In 1833, the Lord characterized the natural disasters of the last days as a kind of amplification of the words of prophets:
After your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes….
And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds.
And all things shall be in commotion.
Doctrine and Covenants 88:89-91
These catastrophic events are not intended to punish us but to get our attention. If we aren’t willing to listen to warnings from prophets, we may listen to a more tangible form of “testimony.”
Nephi taught his brothers the same principle after they arrived safely at their destination: “The Lord God surely shall visit all the house of Israel…some with his voice, because of their righteousness, unto their great joy and salvation, and others with the thunderings and the lightnings of his power, by tempest, by fire, and by smoke, and vapor of darkness, and by the opening of the earth, and by mountains which shall be carried up” (1 Nephi 19:11). As Laman and Lemuel had just experienced firsthand, this escalation of incentives may eventually get you where you need to be, but it sure would have been easier to take action earlier!
Today, I will respond to early and gentle wake-up calls. I will watch and listen for indications that I need to make course corrections, and I will take action promptly.
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