1 Nephi 8: 1 – 23
Lehi has his vision of the tree of life. A man tells Lehi to follow him. Lehi follows but he is in darkness. He had faith to follow so he followed. After a while he exercises faith as he prayed to the Lord for mercy. Then he saw a large and spacious field and a tree that would bring happiness. That’s what the plan of salvation is for – it makes us happy. Lehi went and partook of the fruit, He then knew from experience how good it was. He looked around and saw a river. At the head of the river he saw his family and wanted them to eat too. That’s the kind of fruit it was, it made him want to share it. All good things do that. Lehi calls his family to him and they came and partook, but Laman and Lemuel weren’t with them. Lehi looked again and saw Laman and Lemuel and called them. They would not come because they did not believe that Lehi has anything good to offer them. Lehi saw the iron rod and many people trying to make their way to the path. After catching hold of the rod a mist of darkness arose and many lost their way. Often that happens in the church. People are baptized and get a grip on the rod and mists of darkness arise in the form of temptations or more often mere confusion. They don’t have anything to strive for. Satan likes us to be complacent. Many stop and never get to the temple. Some get to the temple and then they rest. A person can serve a mission and come home and have nothing to strive for or just wants to coast for a while – they get lost. We must be anxiously engaged in a good cause pressing forward or we will get lost pausing too long. we don’t even notice until we need to make major efforts just to get back to where we were.