When speaking of this, I often talk of the grafting of the olive branches and the wild and unruly grafting. I have much good fruit and some wild graftings that did not take. One sibling in particular has created quite the division in the family, calling out my imperfect - but good - father as some kind of horrible person. I refute that and back my father up. I also remind people of the basic commandments - that bearing false witness will be met with a day of reckoning in which they will be put to task for having done so.
Here is a great little write-up I found on FB on the spirit of Laman and Lemuel:
"Surely, as sons of Lehi, Laman and Lemuel had been taught about God, just as Nephi had—but, nonetheless, and obviously, they did not know Him. They had not learned what they had been taught, because to come to know the dealings of that God who has created us, it is not enough to have someone else tell you about him. You learn about who he is, in those hours in your room on your knees. He reveals himself to you when you seek him with all your heart and when your whole mind and soul is inclined toward him.
Laman and Lemuel did not want to pay that price, and so they paid other, agonizing prices instead, throughout the entire journey. They suffered, not because the Lord imposed suffering upon them, but given the nature of the journey, it was the natural consequence of attempting to go it alone.
Because at their core, they knew not God, at their core they could only respond to the reality of the journey with the outlook of the natural man.
We are often told by the world that real freedom and growth comes from abandoning God and his standards, and exercising our will, walking in our own way. What God wants is to make us sheep, to restrict us, to trample our individuality, we hear. Yet, who not only has all the fun, but also all the growth on this journey—Nephi, or his brothers, Laman and Lemuel? Who develops leadership, ingenuity and integrity? Who gets to make a bow and build a ship? Who has visions and talks to the very Creator, himself?
Who, on the other hand, spends all their time plotting and complaining, withering away with every passing year?
We know those answers, and it is easy to sit here at our seeming distance from the desert and call Laman and Lemuel foolish, but the more telling thing is to use their story to look back at ourselves.
In actuality, we are not so far from the desert. We are on our own wilderness journey, specially designed and customized to purge us of our weaknesses and bring us home ready to inherit the promised land.
If we would weather our lives with joy, feel shored up and loved even on the loneliest stretches, strengthened for the battle that rages all around us, made courageous against the fiery darts of the economy or the family disappointments or the illness which plagues us, then it is not enough just to decide to have a good attitude.
Such resolutions will ultimately fail us, because they do not come from the place of real power. Instead, we must “know the dealings of that God who created us.” When we are willing to pay the price to know him, more than a good attitude follows. What follows is strength and joy and the deep affirmation, “O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever.”
There is a reason there is a gulf separating the righteous and the wicked. It is never enough for them to leave and walk away. They must continually kick against the pricks and persecute those who stay true to principle - and try to lead as many away from the truth as they can. History repeats itself - over and over and over...... The spiritual fittest see the patterns and move the opposite direction. The spiritually dense continue on their self-destructive path until they are sealed his...... Sad.
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