2 Nephi 5
Nephi gathers those who want to live righteously and they
travel several days away from those who do not want to keep the commandments of
the Lord and are causing them grief. Thus
begins the Nephites and the Lamanites.
Once they reached the place where they were going to call
home (and they called it the land of Nephi), they began to live “after the
manner of happiness”. What is it to live
like that? In verses 15-18 it defines it
as an industrious people who worked with the tools they were given, i.e. wood,
iron, copper, brass, steel, gold, silver, etc.
They built a temple, so obviously they “worked” at worshipping
there. They labored with their hands; in
v14 they made weapons of defense. They
did not have a king (v18). They grew
their food (v11).
I found this all very interesting this morning because of a
friend of mine who is an excellent example of living after the manner of
happiness. She is a young widow and lost
one of her daughters 10 days within the date of her husband’s death. This is a situation that could take a lot of
people down. I have noticed she lives
after the manner of happiness. She
showed me her garden the other night. It
is beautiful, big and will feed an army and it keeps her busy. She works as an ordinance worker in the
temple weekly as well as attends regularly.
She is a substitute teacher and is very involved in her church
calling. She is busy.
Conversely, I see a young woman who is about as miserable as
anyone I have ever known. Happiness
seems to elude her. She is single and
can’t seem to find a relationship that works for her. She has no hobbies or outside interests. Her main focus is exercise. Well, you can’t do that all day long. She is self-serving and talks of little else
but herself, her woes, her accomplishments, her loneliness, and when you are
with her, you just listen. She is not
living after the manner of happiness and she is definitely NOT happy.
Yes, this chapter is a handbook for living after the manner
of happiness.
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