Day 322 No Ites: One, Children of Christ

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. No more ites.

What are we supposed to call everybody? Welcome to day 322 on our 365 day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Today we continue our reading in 4 Nephi chapter 1 as we read verses 17 through 35.

And this is an interesting series of verses here because in 17 we have, well 16 as we wrapped up yesterday, we found out that these people were happier than literally anyone that's ever been created by the hand of the Lord. And then by the time we get to 35, we have a great division amongst the people. And it's going to happen in roughly 200 years over these 18 verses.

So one thing I like you to take out of the episode today inside of your reading is what exactly happens inside of this transition from happiest people ever to great division amongst the people. That is a journey worth taking some time and looking into. Our verse for today is going to come right on the front end of our reading today.

I wanted to focus on this tiny little moment in the Book of Mormon where we have no ites. It comes in 4 Nephi 1:17. It says: There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of ites.

But they were in one, the children of Christ and heirs to the kingdom of God. Wow, there is so much we can take away from this verse here. No ites.

We've spent the entire Book of Mormon labeling these people by Nephites and Lamanites. Now those have been the biggest umbrellas, but we've also had under there, we've had Lemuelites and Zoramites and Samulites and we've had all sorts of ites. And these people love to label themselves in these two groups, these Nephites and Lamanites.

We too today love to label ourselves in all sorts of ites. We just don't use ites at the end. As I sat down and kind of reflected on the ways that we label ourselves.

We label ourselves by occupation. We label ourselves by sports teams that we follow. We label ourselves if we follow specific influencers or singers.

There are labels for people that follow singers specifically. We label ourselves by skin color. We label ourselves by historical heritage.

We label ourselves through genders. We label ourselves through the places we go to school. I mean, it's amazing.

We have labels for everything. And yet, if you remember, we've talked about this in Savory Salt before, but I love the verse today because they were in one, the children of Christ. And President Nelson has asked us to remember in all of the labeling, there's three that stand out in our lives.

Child of God, Child of the Covenant, and Disciple of Jesus Christ. And I love how this verse puts two of those together hand in hand. They were in one, the children of Christ.

One of my favorite things when I walk down the hallway in my house is seeing my daughter's doors. I love to see my daughters too, by the way. One of my favorite things is seeing on the doors, they each have a post-it note.

And you know what that post-it note says? It wasn't written by me. It was written by them.

And on the post-it note it says Daughter of God. And I love that they have chosen to put that label on their door to remind themselves every time they go in the door and every time they come out the door that the focus of who they are. My friends, what would our lives be like if we truly took President Nelson's counsel and labeled ourselves as children of God, as disciples of Jesus Christ, as children of the covenant?

If those were the most important labels in our lives, what could our society be? I think we get an opportunity to see inside of 4 Nephi exactly what society could be. I'm grateful for this tiny window of opportunity for us to see that all the labels had been removed, even if it was for a short amount of time amongst the Nephites and Lamanites, because they had come together as one, the children of Christ and heirs to the kingdom of God.

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.