What makes a Prophet?

What makes a prophet? I don't know about the rest of you, but reading the biographies of the modern day prophets gives me great hope for myself because it teaches me 1 thing above all, they are mortal men. They were not born prophets. Howard W. Hunter was denied a temple recommend to get married because he did not pay a full tithe, Gordon B. Hinkley nearly left his mission before it was time, and the list goes on.

Today I read 1 Nephi 19 - 20 and Nephi talks extensively about the ancient prophets and how they saw his day and prophesied about the Savior. So it got me thinking, what makes a prophet? They are not born that way. Not even the Savior was born with a full knowledge of everything he would need to know. He was taught line by line, precept upon precept just like the rest of us. He was just a much more adept pupil than all of us. ;)

I think a prophet, is someone who truly defines humility. They love the Lord more than they love themselves, more than their own life. They truly define the scripture in Matthew 16:25 "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." In all the scriptures we have, never once did Nephi balk at something the Lord commanded him to do. Never once did he put his own life ahead of what he felt the Lord would have him do. If all of us could emulate such an attitude, just imagine what could be accomplished for good!

I am also struck by the memory of Nephi. He is making his record more than 9 years from the time he started his journey. In all honesty, I am constantly struck by the good memory of all those who helped write the Book of Mormon. We have sermons word for word how they were delivered for us to read. There were no tape recorders back then, and surely some of these sermons were not recorded until days, maybe even weeks later. And yet they had perfect memory of them. I believe of course, that the Lord helped them, but it also makes you think. They did not have all the distractions that we do in our day. It makes you wonder what we might be giving up for the sake of a life of convenience. Until tomorrow.