All Things With Thankfulness

It is well known in the story of the brother of Jared that there was a time in which he did not pray as he should have. Moroni recorded this about the Jaredites after traveling far and arriving at the seashore: “And they dwelt in tents, and dwelt in tents upon the seashore for the space of four years. And it came to pass at the end of four years that the Lord came again unto the brother of Jared, and stood in a cloud and talked with him. And for the space of three hours did the Lord talk with the brother of Jared, and chastened him because he remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord” (Ether 2:13-14). I don’t think it is suggesting that for four years he did not pray at all; more likely for some shorter period than that he was not as diligent and sincere and devoted in his supplication to the Lord as he should have and as he previously had been. Whatever the nature of his sin, he repented and showed incredible faith in this prayers thereafter as shown in his supplication on the Mount Shelem.

Another place where we see his diligence in prayer after he repented is in their journey across the ocean. We read this: “And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord” (Ether 6:9). I have always been impressed by that verse: they were all crammed into a barge for 344 days with a bunch of animals and minimal privacy, they likely had little to eat or drink, they were no doubt often sick and very uncomfortable on the ocean waves, and they encountered storms and other dangers on the sea, and yet still they sang praises to the Lord all the time. They found a way to be grateful despite their difficult circumstances, and the example of the brother of Jared and his people is a powerful reminder to us of the need to show gratitude to the Lord no matter what our situation is. Nephi showed the same kind of unflappable gratitude when he described his reaction to being tied up on the boat in a storm: “Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions” (1 Nephi 18:16). He lived by the simple commandment the Lord gave in our day, “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things,” as well as the instructions of Paul to the saints of his day: “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:7, Ephesians 5:19-20).  

When the Jaredites finally arrived in the promised land they continued to express their gratitude to the Lord. We read, “And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them” (Ether 6:12). I love the image that verse evokes of an exhausted people in tattered clothes with sunburned faces and tear-filled eyes falling down on their knees in the sand in gratitude to the Lord for His great blessings in bringing them safely there. They were simply full of thanks, and like Nephi—who spoke of how “great were the blessings of the Lord upon [them]” after spending eight years suffering in a desert—they could look back on their journey and see the great mercies of the Lord despite their many struggles (1 Nephi 17:2). Their story is a powerful reminder for us to “not cease to praise the Lord” but to receive “all things with thankfulness” so we too can be filled with joy for the Lord’s tender mercies over us (Doctrine and Covenants 78:19).