Nephi Counsels His Brothers

Today I read 1 Nephi 15 and I got to thinking as I was reading, Nephi asks his brothers if they have asked the Lord to explain the vision Lehi saw and they say they haven’t because God doesn’t make “such things” known unto them.  It made me think, did they actually ask at one point in time and not get an answer?  Did they really try it and fail and so now they believe that God really does not answer their prayers?  Or did they just assume that because they have never seen a vision from the Lord before, that the Lord would not answer their prayers?

How often do we just assume things because we have tried it once or maybe twice and it did not turn out the way we wanted it to.  What if toddlers gave up trying to walk after they fell down once or twice?  We do not do everything for our children because we want them to learn and to be self-sufficient.  Heavenly Father is the same with us.  He wants us to grow and become better than we are today.  He wants us to study things out in our minds and to come to a conclusion.  He will then tell us if we are correct or not.  However if we get stuck, He will help us out, if we ask Him.  Sometimes, if it is important enough, He will step in and help us figure things out.  

I will wager that Laman and Lemuel did not bother to try asking Heavenly Father, but I am a little surprised that Sam did not ask.  We don’t really know much about Sam other than he followed Nephi’s example.  Perhaps he did ask and we are not told.  But whether it was all of Nephi’s brothers or just a couple of them, it is a great reminder that we need to study things out in our minds and then take them to the Lord.  This is the pattern and we will never go wrong if we follow it.  Until tomorrow.