Eric Poulin

1 Nephi 17:2-3

Financial life cycle

“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.”

I’ve noticed a pattern in life. While we are older children (when we are able to notice things around us and remember), we often benefit from the many long years of work and toil that our parents have gone through. Parents have accumulated some measure of wealth with their efforts and we as children enjoy that wealth. We live in relative comfort. Things weren’t always this way, but we didn’t notice when we were really young children. When we are old enough we move out on our own and start our own family. Now, we have left the comforts of our parents years of effort and start with relative basics, slowly accumulating possessions and some measure of comfort. But it takes time.

We often feel short-changed during this period, longing for the comfort that we enjoyed (for what we perceive) during our childhood and wonder why we don’t have the same success as our parents. It isn’t until we are middle-aged or greater that we begin to acquire the means to live in the comforts we had when we were younger. By this time, our children are teenagers and become accustomed to the comforts, and the pattern repeats.

Its during the hard years while we are journeying towards the level of comfort we seek that we often find ourselves humbled by our perceived poverty. We seek after the Lord much during these years and rely on Him to sustain us in many instances. Somehow, we make it though and a “promised land” is attained.

The travelings and experiences of Lehi’s family seems to parallel this pattern. Think of it from Laman, Lemuel and Nephi’s perspective. They lived in comfort in Jerusalem, They went into the wilderness, got married and had children. They suffered greatly during these years. Then finally they achieved a promised land and prospered somewhat.

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