Day 258 What It Means to Grow Up Unto the Lord

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'm cheering for your every success. What does it mean to grow up unto the Lord?

That's what we're going to take a look at today. Welcome to day 258 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Today, you're going to be reading Helaman chapter 3, verses 6 through 25.

These verses are great fun for the geographic historians in the group if there are any of you out there. As we learn about this group of Nephites and former Lamanites that moved northward, whatever that means geographically northward, and they began to work in cement buildings, and they didn't have a lot of timber, and they started to live in tents. And a lot of Book of Mormon historians look at that and go, "Wait a second, where do we have evidence of Native Americans living in concrete buildings and Pueblo-style buildings, and where do they grow up in tents and stuff like that?" It's kind of great fun to go through there.

And then Mormon almost is like, "Oh, I got a little distracted." Let's get back to the story. And then that takes us into where we find out there's a little bit of a rest inside of the destruction and the dissension. There's a great restoration of repentance among people, and the Church grows fantastically.

And we see an introduction of two characters that are going to be our thought for today. And that is in Helaman chapter 3, verse 21 as we get introduced to two of Helaman's sons. Verse 21 says, "And it came to pass that he had two sons.

He gave unto the eldest the name of Nephi, and unto the youngest the name of Lehi. And they began to grow up unto the Lord." My friends, my message for you today is short and sweet because it comes with a little bit of a homework assignment for you. Whether you are currently growing up, whether you're in your early years, your teenage years, whether you're in the 20s and the 30s and you're developing a family, whether you're in the parenting stage or the grandparenting stage, I don't care what stage you're in, whatever stage you're in.

I want you to lean into the phrase, "grow up unto the Lord." What does it mean for the stage you're in? Maybe that means you specifically. Maybe it means the role that you can play to help others in your family "grow up unto the Lord." But I would encourage you to write that phrase down and then start to reflect on the things that come to mind and the things that the Spirit teaches you to "grow up unto the Lord." I want to do this activity because I believe Nephi and Lehi are some of the greatest players inside the tail end of the Book of Mormon here.

Nephi is literally in the future here pretty soon in the chapters, right? In the future, he's going to be given the sealing power of heaven and earth so that whatever he says happens. That is an attribute that is not just given to anyone.

And so I believe it starts with this phrase here. How did Nephi and Lehi get to that level of faith and performance in their life? And I believe it's given to us right here: "they grew up unto the Lord." My friends, let the Spirit teach you today what it means and what role you can play to either yourself "grow up unto the Lord" or for you to help others in your family, your children, your grandchildren, your aunts, uncles, your nieces, your nephews, whoever it may be, what role can you play to help them "grow up unto the Lord"?

I think if you would take this activity today, you would have a great spiritual outpouring as the Spirit teaches you what role you can play in that "growing up unto the Lord." Had fun with that. I'm excited to see the results that come on the backside of it. 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 and I hope you are too.