Heed Them Not

"...but we heeded them not." (1 Nephi 8:33)

Lehi has a dream. The dream is pretty well known. In this dream, he sees the iron rod leading up to the tree whose fruit is desirable above all other fruit. Through the course of his dream, he sees several different groups of people.  Some are making their way to the tree, and others are making their way towards (or are already in) a great and spacious building, which we find out later represents the pride of the world. [Side Note: It is notable that this building stood as if it was in the air, or in other words, had no foundation. In other words, that is not a stable, long-lasting place to be.] At some point, the people in the building would notice those people making their way toward the tree of life, or those who were eating the fruit, and started mocking and making fun of them. Some of the people who were eating (in other words, these were people who had "made it") and saw them mocking, and they started to feel self conscious and ashamed, and would fall away.

Lehi describes that he and Sariah, Nephi and Sam, who had all made it to the tree, saw the mocking people in the big building, and heeded them not.  They didn't even give them the time of day. 

It is a representation of life.  We work hard to get to that precious fruit, which represents the love of God. At times, even though we "make it", meaning that we've tasted the love of God, we meet cross roads, where we have to decide whether we are committed or not. Whether we want to stay there, continuing to partake of that fruit, or if we are going to choose other paths.  The problem is, Satan is sneaky.  He knows that if we are presented with these two options: partake of the love of God, or turning away from that love, nobody would choose the latter. However, from a distance, sometimes other fruit might look more delicious.  People might convince us that it is the best fruit they've ever tasted, and we go give it a try. The temptations to stray come mostly in the form of "this way is better" or "it's not too far from the straight and narrow, you can get back easily enough" or even "you've made it to the tree, and eaten the fruit, it's time to sit and the base of the tree and relax".

I think overall, the message is clear.  No matter where the temptations come from or whether the world thinks less of our decisions to partake of the fruit, we need to "heed them not", as Lehi and the righteous of his family do, and also as it says in one of my favorite hymns:

Fear not, though the enemy deride;

Courage, for the Lord is on our side.

We will heed not what the wicked may say,

But the Lord alone we will obey.

(Let Us All Press On, Hymn 243)