1 Nephi 11: So What?

To read the scripture story, go to 1 Nephi 11, and to read the blog post, go to But What Does It Mean?

So What? Why do we care about trees and iron rods?

First off, the importance of getting your own answers.

There are very few places in this world where you are going to get spoon fed all your answers, so it is very important to learn how to

find your own.

How? Just like Nephi, you ponder, you pray, you ask God. Some other ways that can really help are reading the scriptures for an answer, but it must be coupled with prayer. You may ask a trusted friend, like a parent, a teacher, the missionaries, and they may be able to answer for you and they may even be able to lead you to resources that can help you to find answers for yourself.

Secondly

While there are universal answers for everything, where this is the right answer 100% of the time for all people, like you are a child of God, there are also answers for your own personal life, like what do I need to do for college or how do I get closer to God? The same is for finding answers in the scriptures. There are the basic interpretations, like how the tree of life is the love of God, but then there are things you need to learn from it, like maybe you needed to know that God's love is the sweetest thing in the world and that
you don't just want it for yourself, you want everyone to taste it. When studying the scriptures, keep a question in mind, and God will answer it through the scriptures.

Third

Look! Jesus!

Tue Spirit of The Lord repeatedly told Nephi to look. You have to put in effort.

And Jesus has been prophesied about from the beginning of the Earth.

It is so important that everything in the Old Testament was symbolic of Christ and His Atonement.

He died for You Personally. He took on all of your pains and sicknesses and griefs and sins so that you could be happy, so at you know that there is someone out there who knows EXACTLY what you're going through, so that no matter what happens in your life, you can return to live with Him, because He loves you more than that fruit is white and sweeter than that fruit is sweet. He died for you so you will live again, just as He lives now.

I know that Christ lives.  I know that as you read the Book of Mormon, that you will come to know for yourself that He lived and died and lived again just for you.  I can promise that you will know this is true if you  read and pray about the Book of Mormon.