Days of Greatest Sorrow - Hope or Despair?

Despite knowing that his course in life was according to the will of the Lord, Lehi still recognized that leaving Jerusalem was a difficult and trying thing to do. This is evidenced by a statement that he made to his youngest son Joseph. He said, "thou wast born in the wilderness of mine afflictions; yea, in the days of my greatest sorrow did thy mother bear thee" (2 Nephi 3:1). That is pretty strong indication of how difficult the journey was for him and his family. The thing that I love about this statement is that he does not dwell on it. He acknowledges that it was difficult, but it stops at that. This is a great example of hope. Hope is not to create a dillusion of the mind that "everything is okay" when it is not. Our Heavenly Father expects us to acknowledge that sometimes the things he commands us to do are hard; that his commandments require sacrifice of the things that we enjoy or are comfortable doing. Rather, hope is a knowledge that no matter what happens, in the long-run we will obtain that which we are seeking --- Eternal Life.

Immediately after making this statement about the trials he endured, Lehi goes on to teach his son about Joseph "who was carried away into Egypt" (2 Nephi 3:4). This leads into a great prophesy about the restoration of the gospel. I would suggest that had Lehi taken his first statement further by murmuring about the trials rather than just acknowledging them, he would not have had the Spirit open his mind to the vision of Joesph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Likewise, when we murmur about our trials and how hard they are, we close ourselves off to the Spirit and deny ourselves simliar spiritual experiences. In this instance, Lehi gave his son a great faith promoting experience which I am sure strengthened his testimony and helped him grow closer to the Lord. May each of us follow the example of Lehi and provide faith promoting rather than faith destroying experiences by acknowledging the trials through which we pass instead of complaining about and dwelling on them. If we can learn to do so, we will be much happier and so will our friends, families and associates.