Let Us Be Men

This week I was studying in 2 Nephi chapter 14 and the verse that really stood out the most to me was verse 21 where Lehi speaks to his sons and says "Arise from the dust, my sons, and be men, and be determined in one mind and in one heart, united in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity;" I've always really  liked this verse and as I think about my life and my relationship with my father and all things I've learned from him I started to think about what it means to be a man. In this verse Lehi is talking about being righteous. He was talking to his sons in a very straightforward manner but you can feel the love coming from him as a father. It is really quite moving.

The biggest takeaway from this for me as I was pondering this came in two parts. The first thought I had was about  what it means to "be a man." The second impression I had was about the way that we tell others to arise from the dust and be men.

I think about all the things my father aught me to "be a man." He taught me how to fix a car, how to fix things around the house, how to troubleshoot computer issues, how to respect others, how to box. He taught me a lot of things about what it means to be man in the worldly sense and I will always be grateful to him for that. But as I thought about Lehi and what he meant to his sons it was totally different. There were some a lot of things that he could have told them but instead of teaching his sons actions he taught them to have an attitude of humility and obedience to the Lord because he knew that that would bring them the greatest blessings.

I also thought about how anytime we tell others to repent and come unto Christ we are telling them to "be men." Regardless of age and position as we invite others to come unto Christ and repent we are helping them to unlock the blessings of heaven and become better people. I realized also that there are those in my life that I want to invite to be men. I want to help others rise up and become what God wants them to be. As we do that not only will we being helping others but we will be be improving ourselves and coming closer to the Lord.