And after the aangel had spoken unto us, he departed. And after the angel had departed, Laman and Lemuel again began to amurmur, saying: How is it possible that the Lord will deliver Laban into our hands? Behold, he is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us? (1 Nephi 3:30-31)Seriously Laman? My mom always told me I had a disease called selective hearing (My wife would argue that I still do) and selective memory but this is bad! One minute you have an angel come down from heaven, lay down the law as you are beating you younger brothers with sticks and then literally a few seconds later you are already murmuring. How can you faith be so weak? I mean c'mon! Right? I'm sure we're all thinking the same thing: There is no way my memory is that bad or that my faith is that weak! Well in the words of Lee Corso let me just say "not so fast my friend". To convince you that you probably experience the curse of Laman just let me share a personal experience from my life.
Before I get into the story I will share a brief background: Prior to this semester I was an Exercise Science major looking to get into the Teaching Physical Education/Coaching program. Since I had only taken the prerequisite classes the semester before, I had planned on applying for and entering the program in the Winter of 2011. Longer than I wanted to take but it looked like the best I could do. After dabbling around in college for a few years it was time for me to get finished with my major so I could support a family. So lets jump right in then.
Monday: First day of classes at BYU. I had my class schedule all worked out and my work schedule was perfectly placed around it. It was shaping up to be a pretty good semester with most of my classes in my program. The only problem was that I wasn't actually in the program so there was a slight possibility that I would have to retake a couple of them. Here was where the Lord stepped in and started working miracles. When I arrived at my second class of the day I spoke with one of my teachers and explained my situation and asked if I should take the class I was in and if it would count for my major when I got accepted. She told me that it would not, but she told me that the program head was in her office and I should talk to her because they had already admitted someone into the program that same day. I went straight to her office and spoke with her. She simply handed me an application and told me to fill it out. Then she sent me to another professor to get some other stuff straight. I was in the program! It was amazing actually. Everything seemed to be falling into place. It was quite obvious that the Lord was indeed on my side and preparing the way for me. Then there was the hang up: I had to had a couple of classes to my schedule that conflicted with my work schedule. I began praying and decided that if this was what the Lord wanted me to do then he would continue to prepare the way.
Tuesday: I went into work on Tuesday and explained my situation to the people in charge of scheduling. I told them how I had to add a couple of classes and that I needed to change my work schedule. I wasn't really worried about it because this company is usually very good at working around school schedules. To make a long story short they were "unable" to make the changes and I was forced to quit my job in order to continue my schooling. As I sat at home wondering about the future I began to doubt if I had indeed made the correct decision. "What if it was a mistake to quit,"I asked myself. Maybe I should have just dropped the classes to continue working. Did we really have a sufficient enough income to pull this off? Like Satan always does he began to introduce doubt into my heart. As the doubt crept in my faith crept out and I started to waiver in my convictions. How soon had I forgotten the feelings of the spirit in guiding me to the direction I had come. Now here is how you avoid Laman's curse and forgetting altogether. You may murmur for a moment but there is only one way to nip the curse in the bud. I got down on my knees and began praying for faith. I asked my Father in Heaven to reassure me that I was indeed doing what he wanted. I asked that the way would be prepared so I would know that it was the right path. As I got up off my knees my memory was restored. I began again to remember how good the Lord had been to me and how he had already prepared the way. Because Ashleigh and I had been faithful at paying our tithing I was not worried that we would not meet our financial needs. Soon I remembered that even before I had lost my job the Lord had already helped us. Just a few weeks earlier Ashleigh had been given a promotion at her job and her new income would be more than the combined income of both of our jobs before I had to quit. How amazing and loving is the foresight of the Lord? I wonder at how quickly any of us can forget all of the good things the our Savior has already done for us! We should all look at our own lives and see where we have let Laman's curse destroy our faith and then get down on our knees and ask God to renew our faith in him. I promise if you do this you will, like me be allowed to remember again "the greatness of the Holy One of Israel".
