Eric Poulin

Posts Tagged ‘complaining’

1 Nephi 17:20-22
“And thou art like unto our father, led away by the foolish imaginations of his heart…
And we know that the people who were in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people; for they kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all his commandments, according to the law of Moses…And after this manner of language did my brethren murmur and complain against us.”

Nephi’s brethren are now fathers, so they take this opportunity to complain about the hardships of their wives and how they could have been enjoying their possessions back in Jerusalem. There is no particular mention of Laman and Lemuel in this passage, which makes me think that even young Sam has joined in the complaining, leaving Nephi truly alone.
However, lets look at some of the problems with the complaints of Nephi’s brethren.

Distorted View of Reality

1. They are delusional. They claim that the people in Jerusalem were righteous, even though when they left, Jeremiah had been thrown in to prison and Lehi’s life was threatened for preaching repentance to the people. While they were still likely performing all of the rituals associated with the Mosaic Law, they were far from righteous. Righteousness is not defined by rote obedience to a strict ritualistic law, but by the intentions of the heart. Surely Jeremiah and Lehi were prophesying about similar things, turn your heart to Jehovah to avoid certain destruction. Eight years in the wilderness has a way of distorting perspective and truth, especially when coupled with a longing for relaxing and riotous living.
2. Despite seeing an angel and having their plight confirmed, they call Lehi’s visions and commandments “foolish imaginations of his heart”. They have seen several demonstrations now of the power of God, yet still they choose to turn a blind eye towards the truth.
3. The use the word “wander” in the wilderness, when they have been guided and directed by the Liahona.
4. They tie happiness with enjoying their possessions in Jerusalem. We all know money cannot buy happiness, so clearly this is delusional also. There are always problems to be found in any situation. Its how we handle life’s irritants that defines and determines our “happiness”.

Now, their complaints did have some truth mixed in with them for good measure, in order to strengthen their arguments and make their statements seem more persuasive. However, it is not difficult for anyone who recognizes truth to see through these weak arguments and complaints and refute them.

[Right… noted. But whats this got to do with money and budgeting?]

We often get into trouble when we make financial decisions that are not based on correct perceptions of reality. A few examples: Read the rest of this entry »