One of the most poignant messages of Jacob has to do with “looking beyond the mark.” He explained that:

“…the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand.

“Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble.” (Jacob 4:14)

While Jacob here refers to the historical Jews specifically, this scripture has an incredible amount of relevance and applicability to us today.

In preparation to serve a mission myself I have come across a book called “Preparation Precedes Power” from a family member. It has been helpful in strengthening me and preparing me to serve the Lord on a full-time mission. As I have been reading I have realized that we can all be missionaries at any point in our lives. So how do we do that?

Most likely we would all like to be better missionaries by setting good examples and hoping that someone just might show some interest. However, chances are that whenever such circumstances arise and there is even a glimmer of interest, we don’t know exactly how to articulate the Gospel or our beliefs, even if we know them well.

So what are our beliefs? How do we explain who we are and what we know? The following contains several excerpts from the 11th chapter of “Preparation Precedes Power”, where Randy L. Bott gives us a pretty good idea of how to explain what we believe using the Book of Mormon.

I have been noticing lately an increasing impatience with the less than fair attitudes of the teenagers with whom I work. I run the Teen Center at the local YWCA Family Center, a shelter for families experiencing a homeless situation because of housing or job crisis. Invariably the teens that come in the TC are frustrated with the situation in which they find themselves. Let’s just say that sometimes their arguments and contentions are ridiculously supported by illogical tenets that don’t hold water. Yet, these stubborn teens insist upon sticking to their position at the point of conflicts erupting daily in the classroom. It drives me crazy! Honestly it is such a regular occurrence lately (some of the teens have been experiencing an especially challenging turn of events in their situations) that I have felt it my duty to show them the errors in their thinking by pointing out the flaws in their contentious attitudes… and only get myself dragged into an argument.

Other times I’ll spend hours and hours preparing some project (in my mind there is usually a vision of them getting really in to it, having a great time, having their lives impacted somehow, and maybe even being grateful for what I did), only to have them complain or refuse to participate. Sometimes I get so frustrated with the negativism and the bad attitudes… I just want to take certain individuals by the shoulders and shake em and say “It’s not all about you!”. However, this frustration is really only affecting me. It does not help the situation and I begin to wonder if these teens know that I love them. Do I show it? Or do I just seem like the drill sergeant of rules in the TC?

As we look at the Book of Mormon, we generally look at the spiritual importance of its existence in our lives, for example how can we apply it and liken it to our selves in our own lives?

I once had an excellent teacher who taught about the “physical importance” or the “significance” of the Book of Mormon and how we could apply that in our own lives. He approached the subject by explaining that everyone would undoubtedly feel and experience the hardest parts of our lives when we are perhaps in the deepest struggles, pains, hardships and confusing parts of our lives.

He began to explain that the Book of Mormon record did not begin with the book of Nephi, but the book of Lehi, his father. He taught us that the book of Lehi was surely an amazing book, but the Lord knew from the very beginning that Joseph Smith and Martin Harris would lose those records and centuries earlier had prepared and protected the small plates of Nephi which carried a greater and better account than the Book of Lehi. The Lord explained that “there are many things engraven upon the plates of Nephi which do throw greater views upon my gospel; therefore, it is wisdom in me that you should translate this first part of the engravings of Nephi, and send forth in this work.” (D&C 10:45)

In my latest reading of Lehi’s vision of the Tree of Life, I found something I’d never seen before. We often talk about the symbolism of the iron rod, the great and spacious building, the tree, and the fountain of living waters. We tend to skim over the first part, though.

Lehi says in 1 Nephi 8:4 that at the beginning of his dream, Lehi saw a “dark and dreary wilderness.” After some time, Lehi encountered an angelic being who led him on the journey that eventually culminated in the Tree of Life. Note, though, that as Lehi follows the angel, he sees that he is now in a “dark and dreary waste,” through which waste he travelled for many hours in darkness.