"Behold, these many years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance; yea, and we might have been happy."
1 Nephi 17:21
In this verse, Nephi's brethren think that he can't build a ship, and they regret leaving Jerusalem in the first place, thinking that it won't really be destroyed as their father predicted. They actually say in the previous verse "it would have been better that they had died . . . than to have suffered these afflictions." ... And I think what strikes me most about this verse is the "we might have been happy" part. I think a lot in life we look back on choices that we made and wonder what it would have been like, had we taken another path. What life would be like if this or that had happened... and as intellectually interesting as that kind of pondering can be, it has absolutely no relation to our real life and the real choices that we did make. We read in Mormon 9:14 "he that is happy shall be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still." ... and sometimes it is good to review the past, to remember what God has done for us, and to try not to make the same mistakes. But it is our job and our quest to make our lives NOW whatever they can be... no matter what circumstances the Lord has given us. Instead of wondering what might have been, we need to choose happiness now. Find happiness... because it is there. It IS possible. We just have to find it... and God will help us. He wants us to be happy. He's cool like that.
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