Day 29 Brothers Rejoice in Your Failure

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth, and in the same sentence offers a warning that savorless salt is good for nothing. Join me in an attempt to be savory salt as I share each day one verse of scripture and one small thought. Perhaps this small daily emphasis can lead to greater savor in your life, and ultimately you and I can be savory salt.

Hello, my friends and family. Wherever you're listening from, thank you for joining me, and know that I am cheering for your every success. Welcome to Day 29 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon.

Today we continue Nephi's journey of building a ship inside of 1 Nephi chapter 17, and the reading today is going to be the middle of that chapter. 1 Nephi 17:18-35. So if you're following along there, Nephi has been commanded to build a ship from the Lord. He dives in, he starts doing it, and surprise, surprise, his brothers Laman and Lemuel don't buy it.

I know, isn't that crazy? Surprising? But it's even worse.

Not only do they not buy into the idea, they're going to work against Nephi to accomplish this. And that's what I want to look at a little bit today. Verse 19 is our verse today, and it says—this is after Nephi has been kind of mocked a little bit, and they, you know, throwing barbs at each other a little bit, Laman and Lemuel are—and here's what we have in verse 19: "And now it came to pass that I, Nephi, was exceedingly sorrowful because of the hardness of their hearts.

And now when they saw that I began to be sorrowful, they were glad in their hearts, insomuch that they did rejoice over me, saying, 'We knew that ye could not construct a ship. For we knew that ye were lacking in judgment. Wherefore, thou canst not accomplish so great a work.'" Listen to what's happening here.

Not only are Nephi's brothers barbing against him, mocking him for even trying to do such a great work, but when Nephi visibly becomes disappointed and down and depressed because of the challenges and because of their own hardness of hearts, they actually get excited for his losses. They're cheering for his failures. Now, it makes me wonder, are those people in your life at all?

As you think about the people that you're surrounded with—your friends, your family members, your colleagues at work, whoever it is—do you have those people in your life that actually seem to revel in your failures? And if so, what do you do with that? Now Nephi gives us an interesting response here, and he's ultimately going to show his level of faith in responding to his brothers.

But I got to tell you, as I reflected on that a little bit, several people came to mind for me that were the exact opposite of what Nephi is experiencing here. My wife and my sisters are my biggest fans. I mean, my daughters are my biggest fans too.

But I got to tell you, even before my daughters came along, my wife and my sisters are there. They are there when I am winning, and they are there when I'm losing. There are times at night where my wife and I lay down to go to bed, and I just say, 'What am I doing?

What am I doing? What am I building here? Am I building anything at all?

Like today, I feel like I'm losing.' And my wife reaffirms the beliefs in me. And she says, 'Look, you're changing lives. You're making a difference.

And you're growing something that's huge. So just keep growing it.' Look, it may never turn out to be like ginormous and huge and amazing, but her belief in me inspires belief in myself. And my sisters, I can think of a time I had a business at one point that just completely went under.

Like in one day, it was the weirdest thing. It just kablooey, just blew up, gone, done. And I was just, I didn't even know what to do.

Like my business was gone. And out of nowhere, my sisters show up, and they did it at different times. It wasn't like they all came at the same time, but they just showed up.

And I have to say, you want those people in your life. I think we get an interesting pattern here with Nephi and his brothers. And Nephi, this seems to be kind of the turning point where Nephi says, 'We are going to have a different relationship from here on out.

I'm going to stay in my faith. You better understand that I'm going to stay in my faith.' And if you read that inside of the chapter here, you're going to see some amazing responses that Nephi has. So I just wanted to plant that seed for you a little bit.

Find those people in your life. And look, I know I've mentioned this before, but I'm one of them. I'm cheering for you.

I'm cheering for your success. I'm cheering not for the failures, but in the failure times, I'm cheering that you're going to keep your head up and you're going to keep pushing through because you can do this. I know you can.

The Lord knows you can. Keep it up. Keep going, and surround yourself with people that will tell you that same thing.

That's all for today, my friends. Remember that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. Keep it small, keep it simple, and always seek to be savory salt.

I'll be here tomorrow. I hope you are too.