Packing for a Long Trip

Packing for a Long Trip

What does your family pack before going on a long trip? Name a few things.

Before Jared and his brother left their homes in Jerusalem with their families and friends, the Lord told them to ‘gather together flocks and seeds of every kind.’ The Lord also told them to ‘prepare a vessel . . . to carry with them the fish of the waters,’ ‘lay snares to catch fowls of the air,’ and to ‘carry with them deseret, which by interpretation is a honey bee; and thus they did carry with them swarms of bees . . . ,’ (Ether 1:41-42, 2:1-3)

Why did the Lord ask Jared and his brother and their friends and families to pack unusual things for their long trip?

They didn’t know how long their trip would be or where to find the land of promise. At first, the Lord directed them to the valley of Nimrod. But the valley of Nimrod was not the land of promise.

They still had a very long way to go.

How many times do you think Jared and his brother, their families and friends asked, ‘Are we there yet?’

Can you define these words? flock, vessel, fowl, snares

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reneehawkley Charity (love) October 16, 2021 1 Minute

‘Highly favored of the Lord’

Whenever I read the book of Ether, I ask myself this question:

Why did Jared ask his brother to pray for special blessings from the Lord instead of praying to the Lord himself?

Is it because Jared’s brother was ‘a large and mighty man, and a man highly favored of the Lord?’ Maybe Jared was a small person who thought the Lord gave better blessings to those who are ‘large and mighty.’ (Ether 1:34)

No way!

Maybe Jared was just shy about praying and talking to the Lord. Well, some people are shy about talking to the Lord. They might not know talking to the Lord is like talking to your best friend because the Lord IS your best friend!

The answer to my question doesn’t really matter.

What matters is that Jared started out with faith in the Lord and good ideas. He asked his brother to pray for certain blessings that would help their families and friends to survive.

Jared and his brother were like a team. They counted on each other to be strong in their own talents, and the Lord blessed them with answers.

Jared’s faith and ideas, his brother’s prayers and the Lord’s answers were the recipe for Jared, his brother, their families and friends to travel to a ‘choice land.’

The book of Ether tells stories of their adventures thousands of years ago.