Lessons from Laman and Lemuel

We have this ward challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 2 months-- seriously, this has been really hard for me because it is like 5 or 6 chapters a day. If you miss your reading for a few days, you feel overwhelmed because you have so far to catch up to.

I had one of those moments, though, when I was grateful for my reading and the thoughts it brought to forefront of my mind. My husband is a surgical resident (i.e. he works a load of hours), he's Elder's Quorum President, and we have 3 small children. At times I feel totally alone and overwhelmed. To top things off he has worked as the 'night float' for 2 months now: this means he's working 6 PM- 6 AM (though he get's home around 9:00 AM usually), 6 nights a week. The rest of his existence is spent sleeping, falling asleep, or talking about going to sleep.

A few weeks ago, my son left left a hose on near our window well. When my husband came outside, he panicked (you see: we've left the hose on before and a basement flood was the result). When he rushed downstairs, the trickling noise coming from the wall indicated the worst: water was gushing in under the floorboards.

In the ensuing panic, several thoughts crossed my mind: 1) Why is this happening to me (again)? 2) Doesn't Heavenly Father really know how hard life is for me right now? 3) How could Heavenly Father let this happen-- this is too much for me right now?

As my mind was going through these complaints, the words of Laman and Lemuel that I had read just a week before came echoing into my head, "Thou hast declared unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear." (1 Nephi 16:1).

At this moment it struck me that I was taking the attitude of Laman and Lemuel-- complaining against Heavenly Father, instead of rejoicing in his goodness. In most of my Book of Mormon readings, I generally empathize with Nephi and consider myself to be more like him. I've never conciously caught myself in the attitude like Laman and Lemuel. This was a great wake-up call for me. I remembered furthur reading about Laman and Lemuel and it seemed that when the trials arose, that was when the murmuring began. Hmmm, a bow breaks (my son floods the basement), let's tie up our brother and kill our father (I chastise my Heavenly Father for making things too rough for me).

I don't want to take a Laman and Lemuel attitude in life. When I caught myself doing so, I tried to change my perspective. Instead of complaining to Heavenly Father about how hard this was I thought of the good things: we caught the flood early, we've had a flood before so we know what to do about it, my husband was actually around (and awake) that morning. With a quick change of attitude, this trial suddenly didn't seem so horrible.

My testimony was also strengthened and renewed. I was reminded how important it is to read the scriptures frequently so words can resonate in your mind and help you out in your own life.