And My Father Dwelt In A Tent

2 Nephi 2:15
And my father dwelt in a tent.

This is one of those scriptures that a load of cynical teenagers, like myself, tend to pick whenever we're chosen to memorize a non scripture mastery scripture, because it's both so short and found so early in the Book of Mormon.

But let's think for a second. What do we know about Lehi, Nephi's father? He was a prophet in ancient Jerusalem. He was rich, he was powerful; he had a huge house and many pricey possessions. And because the Lord requested it of him, he abandoned the city, leaving all his wealth and possessions there in the city, to go dwell in a tent.

We live in Katy, and I'm sure none of us are, well, poor or not well off. Would you really be willing to leave your home, your friends, this city, and go off into the wilderness to "dwell in a tent" if your Father in Heaven asked it of you? It takes a great deal of faith and Christian courage to follow through with a request so- as Laman and Lemuel viewed it -pointless and inane, even if it had been sent from God.

Compare it to asking Noah to build an ark. Noah had no idea what an ark was, how large it should be, or what to build it out of. But, upon being prompted and instructed, he followed through, and built an ark. This might be a bit more of a seemingly ridiculous request out of context, but it was just as necessary. Through Noah and his family's survival, the human race was preserved.

How do I justify this comparison?

Through Lehi and his family's survival, the line of Manasseh was preserved, the Book of Mormon was eventually written, the church was restored, and here we are today. If Lehi didn't have the faith necessary to follow God's commandments and go "dwell in a tent," our religion would still be lost.

So, my friends, do you have the faith necessary to follow God and go "dwell in a tent"?

What I Believe

I am a Christian. In fact, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

My church believes in one, singular God, as do I. Christ is His Son, as evidenced by the scriptures and quotes by him (Christ) and Him (God) throughout the Bible. My church believes that the Holy Ghost is part of neither, but a separate individual, as do I. Having felt the presence of the Holy Ghost many times, I must say, I definitely agree. My church, and I, both believe everyone in existence, from the devil and his demons, Christ and the angels, and the people of Earth and myself, to be spirit children of our Father in Heaven (i.e., God), whom we refer to as our Heavenly Father (go figure).

Though I may be doing this for my early morning Seminary class, believe me, what I am saying here is true. If it wasn't, I'd lose purpose in my life, and experience a heavy lack of direction.

Being an artist and a writer, I tend to think of everything and everyone in those terms. People are characters, scenery is background art, color is pastels, paint, crayons, anything, and most importantly, life is love; for if an artist or author does not love his work, it can not be and should not be either complete or good, but done shabbily and with a lack of effort.

God loves His children (i.e., us), and if He didn't, He wouldn't have bothered putting in the time and effort to make such a gorgeous canvas for us to paint our choices onto and weave our lives in such a magnificent tapestry. He wouldn't have written out a plot outline if He didn't love us already.

If He didn't love us, we ourselves would be wholly incapable of love. It would be terrifying. What motivation would we have to do anything, if we could not love?

People, on occasion, have asked me about my religion (well, more than just "on occasion", but still), and more specifically, how I can justify my belief in a God (this one actually more of just "on occasion"). My efforts to prove my beliefs usually fall back to emotion and prayer. Against atheists, I try not to utilize a lot of spiritual argument, because they try to take it apart and in their mind, they manage to render it unarguable and beaten simply by denying it whenever brought into an argument, but prayer is key to my testimony, and I simply cannot live without it.

But back to emotion. Against such questions, I respond back with the simple answer, "Love."

Ladies and gentlemen, since a young child, I have been an avid Beatles fan, and, truly, all you need is Love. Love answers so many questions, solves near every non-curricular/not work-related problem (i.e., loads of personal problems), and has worked as a grand and great defense against persecution. For, if no God was present, wouldn't emotion be a highly useless and negative step in the evolutionary chain? And, if no God was present, in times of distress and grief, why on earth is there this satiating feeling of love that comes over you, even if, in your depression, you shoo it away immediately, it cannot be denied if you take the time to realize it.

To falsify a quote (not) by Spock, what merely seemed logical was merely what was wrong.

But now, I digress, and go to bed. My sleep deprived testimony might be edited when I am more rested.

Andrew Beckstrom