Prophets of Old

(I am sorry I haven't posted until now, I thought this was due today, but it was due Monday night.)

In my post today I want to focus in on The Book of Mormon and how we can relate to this type of ancient writing. I have probably read the beginning of The Book of Mormon hundreds of times. Reading it in our “text book” helped me to have a different perceptive on 1 Nephi. During this time I was reading 1 Nephi we were also working on our personal essays in class. I had the thought that Nephi’s entries are his personal essays.

I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.

Let’s take the first verse of The Book of Mormon. Here Nephi is reflecting on his experiences with his family and other ideas that has put him on the path he is on. Like most of our personal essay we state a purpose or tell a purpose why we are reflecting on particular parts of our lives. Here Nephi explains the reasoning behind he is recording his experiences because he feels he will be able to accurately write the Lord needs because he has knowledge we do not. Like Nephi we write our own personal experiences to share with others what they might not have understood or experiences otherwise.

After the first verse Nephi continues to share his knowledge and his different personal experiences resulting in either a moral or a lesson. These stories in The Book of Mormon are like any other kind of personal stories and are easily relatable. By looking at The Book of Mormon in this way we can take prophets of old and their stories and appropriately humanize them. It can be hard at times to understand or relate to them but through analyzing it in this perspective we can easily understand they are people like us who have similar experiences.