Jacob's Advice

"And now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful God has given us so great knowledge concerning these things, let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off; nevertheless, we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea." (2 Nephi 10:20)

I love this little pep talk given by Jacob, Nephi's brother.  He first reminds us of how merciful the Lord has been to us.  God has given us a great plan, and has provided us with so much, but He didn't just make a plan and not tell us either.  He has laid out the plan, and we are so blessed to have it.

I love the points that Jacob makes of the things we can do with that knowledge.  He reminds us to Remember the Lord, which is part of our baptismal covenants anyway, to always remember Him.  We need to lay aside our sins.  So if we are sinning (which we all are to some degree), STOP IT!  We need to repent and come unto Christ.  Then, Jacob says to not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off.  I think this is important to remember when we are working on trying to be better.  Sure, our sins weigh us down and we need to get rid of them, but they are definitely not the end of the world.  Just repent and move on.  With true repentance comes real, honest, and complete forgiveness.

Jacob and Nephi were driven out of their land.  They had to leave Jerusalem, but they were taken to a promised land, which was better.  I think we need to remember when our path, directed by the Lord, doesn't take us where we think we are going, we can rest assured that God knows what He is doing, AND that He loves us and wants the best for us.  So because of this, He will always choose a better path for us than we could possibly choose ourselves, even if it appears to be a less desirable way at times.  That has certainly been the case in my own life.