Dried up Blossoms in the Wind - Our Children

I checked my website.  I’ve never felt to comment on any of my thoughts from 2 Nephi 15 before.  This is a good time. 

There is a lot of concern for the children of Israel in this chapter.  In the first half, it would seem there is an apostasy, aka dark ages (v1-6).  Verse 7 seems to verify that thought.  Verse 8 there is a concern for abuse of the land.  After all, we are stewards of our land.  How are we caring for it?  Certainly, the hills in Utah Valley are having homes built very close to each other. (v8 join house to house).  There are oil spills, pollutions.  As I sit here, the smog is so thick I cannot see the trees behind the house across the street.  Are we responsible for these pollutions!  No doubt about it.

My biggest thought though was on verses 24-25.  “Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble (symbol of wicked) and the flame consumeth the chaff (wicked), their root (parents, ancestors) shall be rottenness, and their blossoms (their children) shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, (gospel) and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

“Therefore, is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them; and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets.  For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.”  (His hand could be stretched out in love or anger.)

Why do you think this scripture jumped out at me this morning?  Well, I get a very up close and personal look at how turning away from gospel truths affects the “blossoms”, our children.  Interesting the word chosen was “dust”.  What happens to dust?  It is blown toward any direction the wind blows.  It is the children who suffer when their parents (the stubble) turn away from the gospel teachings.  I’ve heard of it in the children of my nieces and nephews, and I’m watching it in some of my grandchildren.  It is the children who suffer.  They have no anchor (my own metaphor) and any wind of doctrine will blow them in any direction.  There is nothing they’ve been taught to give them the tools to navigate troubled times, and we ALL know this life is filled with troubles currently.  The calamities spoken of in the scriptures of the last days are here.  We see earthquakes, war, famines, pestilence, and parents despising their children.  It is here folks! 

The only place I gain any comfort is in knowing our Savior’s hand is stretched out continually beckoning all His children to come unto him.  Our agency was critically important to us in the pre-existence.  Our Savior lived to set an example for us to follow.  He died so that we could choose to follow that example.  Doing so brings light into our lives so we can see the path of happiness in this life.  But we have to want that better life.  In order to want that life, we must be exposed to it.  My heart aches when I see a parent lead their children away from the gospel into a world of darkness where they are as dried up blossoms in the wind before the storm.