Never Mind, All Is Well

When I ask my teenagers how school when they return home each day, they usually give me answers like this: “Fine.” “It was school.” Silence and a grumpy look. Or if I ask what happened that day, they say something along these lines, “Nothing.” “Stuff.” “Why do you care?” I’m pretty used to these kinds of terse, cranky responses. Thinking about that, I had to laugh yesterday when I was listening to the Joseph Smith History and I thought about the way the young Joseph, also a teenager, responded to his mom. He had just experienced the greatest theophany since the resurrection of the Savior: “When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home. And as I leaned up to the fireplace, mother inquired what the matter was. I replied, ‘Never mind, all is well—I am well enough off.’” That sounds just like my teenagers! In modern language he was saying, “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.” And yet he had just had the most incredible vision of the Father and the Son! It must be something inherent in teenagers that they don’t want to give too many details about their lives to their parents. Granted, Joseph did add one more piece of information to his mom, at least according to this account: “I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true” (JSH 1:20). And it may be that he actually opened up to her and gave her the whole story at that point, but I thought his initial response looked very similar to how my own teenagers respond to me.

            Joseph was fourteen years old when he had the First Vision, and it is interesting to consider that Mormon was also called at a very young age by the Lord to do the difficult mission required of him. He made this statement in describing his youth, “And I, being fifteen years of age and being somewhat of a sober mind, therefore I was visited of the Lord, and tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus” (Mormon 1:15). At almost the same age as Joseph when he had the First Vision, Mormon was “visited of the Lord” and knew of the goodness of the Savior. And like our modern-day teenagers, he did not give us many details about what happened to him! It is not clear whether he meant that he saw the Savior at this time or if he is referring to a different kind of spiritual experience, but clearly he was called of God to do a great work at a young age like Joseph later would be. Mormon did tell us of one more thing that happened to him around this time: “I being young, was large in stature; therefore the people of Nephi appointed me that I should be their leader, or the leader of their armies. Therefore it came to pass that in my sixteenth year I did go forth at the head of an army of the Nephites, against the Lamanites” (Mormon 2:1-2). It is hard to imagine a sixteen-year-old leading an army of war, and it would be really interesting to have more details here about how this came to be and how he was able at that young age to take on this incredible responsibility. Clearly the Lord was with him and gave him great strength and wisdom.

            One of the things that I think teenagers struggle with today is finding gratitude. I was struck by another statement from Mormon that I read today about himself: “I am Mormon, and a pure descendant of Lehi. I have reason to bless my God and my Savior Jesus Christ, that he brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem, (and no one knew it save it were himself and those whom he brought out of that land) and that he hath given me and my people so much knowledge unto the salvation of our souls” (3 Nephi 5:20). This was over 900 years after Lehi came out of the land of Jerusalem through the Lord’s guidance, and yet Mormon was grateful for it. That gratitude came from his time in the records he was pouring over as he wrote his abridgement of the Nephite history, and his example is a powerful one for us. He was living in a terribly wicked time with a lot to be pretty depressed about. And yet he found gratitude for the knowledge the Lord had given him and for the way God had led his ancestors to the promised land many centuries before. We could all use more of that kind of gratitude, even in a world that has a lot to be depressed about. Perhaps if they see it in us, our teenagers will be inspired to be a little more grateful for the Lord’s blessings and, with Mormon, find “reason to bless their God and [their] Savior Jesus Christ.”