2.38 Be Sober

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello, my friends, great to have you with me.

Today, let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. This week has been a wonderful week with us inside of Doctrine and Covenants sections 6 through 9. We're going to now transition, as we've kind of started into a little bit of a habit here, into our Book of Mormon chapters for the week.

You should be reading 1 Nephi chapters 18 through 22 if you want to stay on pace for the side-by-side. And so today that means we're going to be looking, for me at least, inside of 1 Nephi chapters 18-19-ish. Our verse for today is going to come from chapter 18.

So let's dive directly into that one. The ship is finished. We learn on the front end of it that the ship is awesome.

It's exceedingly fine, which should not surprise us. When the Lord helps us out, we create exceedingly fine things in our lives. There's a great lesson there.

And then we get to verses 9 and 10. And I'm going to let you dive into verse 9 on your own because it describes some of the behaviors that Nephi was worried about that the Lord may choose to not direct them anymore. So whatever was happening there, it was enough that Nephi was worried about it.

And then we get verse 10 here. It says, "And I, Nephi, began to fear exceedingly lest the Lord should be angry with us, and smite us because of our iniquity, that we should be swallowed up in the depths of the sea. Wherefore I, Nephi, began to speak to them with much soberness.

But behold, they were angry with me, saying, 'We will not that our younger brother shall be a ruler over us.'" This one was a fun one for me because there are several aspects of this verse, actually, that I thought about different stories to share. And so I'll try and pick one that means the best for you guys. Hopefully, certainly one that brings the Spirit into our conversation here.

I think it's interesting that what we have in verse 9 is kind of rudeness. We don't know exactly what it is, but they're using some sort of "exceeding rudeness" is the word that he used. And his response to that rudeness is soberness.

And that one got me thinking a little bit. I thought, wow, what is soberness? Because if we look at the idea around soberness, it's really kind of interesting.

That word pops up, if I'm not mistaken, that pops up in the Three Witnesses account. But what I did is I said, "Hey, AI world out there, if I was going to use the term soberness in the 1800s, why would I be using it? What would it say?" It had this to say.

So bear with me just a little bit. Just go down this rabbit hole for just a sec with me. It says, "In around 1830, an educated person, perhaps a philosopher or a theologian or whatever, would define soberness as a state of moderation.

Soberness is a mark of respectability, essential for civic virtue, sound judgment, and effective leadership, particularly in an era that valued decorum and social order." And I thought, wow, what a great perspective on the term soberness. And then did you catch the response from all of the ones that are in the rudeness column? They said, "We will not that our younger brother shall be a ruler over us." You know, their response was nothing about their behavior.

Their response was nothing about, "Oh, sorry for what we said or what we did or how we were acting." Their response was, "Well, you're younger than us, so you don't have anything to say about this. You can't be the boss of us." That's basically what they're saying here. My friends, regardless of our ages, I would encourage us all, me too, to consider what soberness means in our lives.

What does it mean for you and me to be sober? What does it mean? And to bring our moral and intellectual alignment with Jesus Christ.

I love that idea. I love the idea that it ties into leadership principles for the 19th century. I love the idea that soberness, Nephi seems to be saying, "Hey, my friends, I'm going to stand up here.

You guys are partying too much and I'm making a stand." And they turn around and they say, "Hey, you're younger than us, so you're not the boss of..." What an interesting response. My friends, may we all be a little bit more like Nephi and be willing to stand as a sober witness of Jesus Christ and to do so with all soberness, as the other witnesses have testified. I love that one and I wanted to share that with you today.

That's all for today, my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave to the covenants you have made, and together we will be savory salt.