"And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings.
And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness."
1 Nephi 17:2-3
I think it would be hard to talk about "great blessings" when you were wandering in the wilderness for years and eating raw meat... but perhaps that is part of the point. God strengthened them to not feel like complaining... which I think is a lot stronger than we often are in easier circumstances.
So the lessons I am seeing here are first, that when God leads us to a cool, promised land, often that means hardship along the way, and starting from scratch. The Jaredites, the Nephites, Abraham and later Moses with the Israelites, the Pioneers, and we should probably count Noah in here as well. They all went from something established to unknown and really starting from scratch starting over. No existing homes to buy, no sewer hook ups.
And second, that the first part doesn't matter. The hardship factor of being led to a promised land is nullified by the strength that the Lord gives us so that we can tackle the new situation that we're thrown into.
We don't have to be in the wilderness literally to face the scary and the new and sometimes our hardships come in different ways. Our world is a wilderness sometimes, not because there are trees and wild animals, but because of the new things that we have to face and the new ways that evil is trying to attack us. AI has made it very, very easy to fake voice, video, or anything written. The internet is becoming increasingly fictionalized. Truth is harder to come by, and many prominent companies and personalities are boldly lying to the public about different technologies in order to enrich themselves.
Today, let's keep the commandments of the Lord and look to him for strength to live in our day. He can help us navigate the wilderness of our modern day challenges, and feeling the Spirit is one of the only ways that we are going to be able to truly know truth from deception as we move forward. Let us put our trust in God above all, and he will strengthen us and "provide means for us" as we sojourn in this wilderness.
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