Robert writes home #103 Essay "I think that the Laman-Nehi conflict is about maturation.

103

Dear Mother,

            We had the stake barn dance out here at our barn last night again last night. It went well. Good weather, few mosquitoes. They seemed to like it. We’re flattered that they like to come out here. This is about he 5^th or 6^th time over the past 15 years.

Love,

Robert, Janet, Sam, and Heidi Jo

PS Another essay: (prompted by my seminary study of the Book of Mormon) I think that the Laman-Nephi conflict is about maturation. When a baby is born it is a totally selfish creature. It doesn’t care that it inconveniences anyone with its demands. It just wants personal gratification. When it’s at church and feels some kind of discomfort it doesn’t stop to think “will it distract everyone from hearing the speaker or worshipping if I cry? Maybe I should just stifle it until after the meeting”. It just lets it all out and cries until someone assuages it’s discomfort. But mothers can be glad that the baby is little and physically helpless. If a baby suddenly found himself in an 18 year old physically mature body. He would be a serious threat to society. He would go around taking what he wanted and doing what he wanted and gratifying his urges and wants regardless of the expense to others. He would try to get rid of anyone who got in the way of his having his way. We usually call those people who are like that criminals. They are people who’s social-emotional maturation hasn’t kept up with their physical maturation.

            Parents have to work hard to teach and condition that baby to control his emotions and behavior before he gets big enough to do too much damage.

            My goal as a parent has been to help those babies grow into a being who controls its basic urges and tries to do the things that will work to the best good of all concerned. I call this social-emotional maturation.

            Spiritual maturation is learning to live by faith and to be taught by the spirit of prophecy and revelation…then having the discipline to make yourself do what has to be done to comply with that spirit of prophecy and revelation. Prophecy is what “was, is and will be”…in other words it is reality. Whether it is past or future depends on your vantage point on the time line. The spirit can reveal that to you if you are spiritually mature. Just as it did to Nephi and several other great spiritual leaders like Moses and Brother of Jared who were shown the future history of the world…stuff that science and modern technology could never show them.

            I think that spiritual maturation carries over from the pre-existence. Just as “whatever level of intelligence we achieve to in this life carries to the next” so did it from the life before. Hence the denotation of “the elect”. And those special noble spirits that have been saved for this last dispensation to prepare the way for the millennium. I suspect that many, if not all, of the people who have the commitment to get up and come to seminary at 6 AM qualify as “Elect”. They are certainly not ordinary.

            Nephi’s level of spiritual maturation was so highly developed that when he prayed for understanding angels came to teach him. They showed him what “was, what is, and what will be”. Science couldn’t do that for him.

            I really like Nephi. He is fine prototype to follow, a hero.

            Helping children mature physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually should be the career objective of parents.

            Nephi achieved high level social emotional and spiritual maturation at a very early age.

            Laman and Lemuel were still social-emotional children, from all that I can tell. They were very short sighted and focused on immediate comfort and gratification. They cared mainly about having things their way. They could not get a feel for anything they couldn’t perceive with the five senses. The only time they didn’t murmur when Lehi told them to do something was when he told them to go back and get the girls.

            Their egos never recovered from having their youngest brother go in and finish the Laban assignment for them…after they had failed their assignment and had the angel “cuss em out” and tell them that Nephi would be made ruler over them because of his obedience. That obsession was carried on for hundreds of years.

            They also didn’t understand the Lord’s concept of “ruler”. They saw it as a right to privilege to dominion, and interpreted it relative to the basic male urge to be the preeminent male.

            In the Lord’s plan, where charity, or the pure love of Christ, is the greatest commandment, being the ruler means that you have responsibility to dedicate your energy to serving the best interests of those who you rule. You don’t exercise unrighteous dominion of take advantage of your position for selfish indulgence. You love those people and their happiness and welfare is your objective…i.e. king Mosiah. Freedom of choice is what allows self- serving leaders to pervert the structure into abuses, and since Satan has dominion in this world that ends up being most rulers.

            In the Lord’s plan the best leader is the best follower. Since, none of us are smart enough to matriculate the intricacies of Satan’s temptations without messing up sooner or later. The one who can tune in to the ultimate intelligence in the universe and take his counsel will make the best choices and is, therefore, the best leader. Hence, who else would you pick out of that group to be the leader? Nephi was the one most tuned to absolute reality and the spirit. He hungered and thirsted after ultimate reality (righteousness) and prayed to know what it was. Laman and Lemuel were just interested in making a case for having their way. They didn’t care about “down the road or ultimate reality, or the Lord’s long range plan for us, or spiritual growth and development. They just wanted back in the comfort zone where they used to live and having the status and dominion that usually was the right of the first born. And even when they had first hand acquaintance with an angel, they chose to forget it as soon as they could because it didn’t serve their purposes.

            They didn’t know it at first, but they weren’t being independent free thinkers; they were doing just what Satan was prompting them to do. They thought they were their own boss because they didn’t follow Christ. But when any of us choose to not follow Christ, Satan is just chortling and grinning because that person is following Satan’s prompting and instruction and doesn’t even know it… and Satan is an empire builder. He’s recruiting hot and heavy and doesn’t have much to offer. But he can lie. As a matter of fact, he’s the father of all lies trying to trap everyone he can into his empire. He doesn’t have to tell the truth or keep his deals. God and Christ can’t lie. There is no hype in their presentation just reality.

 Helping children mature physically, socially, emotionally and spiritually should be the career objective of parents.