08/30/2020
There was once a woman who stared over her fence at her neighbor’s peach trees.
Her own yard only had wild blackberries bushes and she dreamed of the cobblers, pies, and pound cakes she could make if she had access to the peach trees.
Finally, her neighbor’s house went up for sale. The woman immediately sold her own home and bought her neighbor’s, excited to finally enjoy the peaches she had stared at for so long.
But the trees were harder to maintain than she had predicted. She spent hours pruning the trees, spraying for insects, and stringing lights on the branches to heat the budding peaches on cold spring days.
“So much work for only a few weeks of peaches,” the woman thought unhappily. Soon, she found herself back at the fence, staring at her old blackberry bushes, that required no labor and produced berries for most of the summer.
When life is hard, it can be so easy to see flowers in other yards and only weeds in your own.
Look at Helaman 7.
Nephi, son of Helaman, compares his difficult time to when his namesake, Nephi the First, came out of Jerusalem and into the promised land.
“Then were his people easy to be entreated, [and] firm to keep the commandments of God,” the son of Helaman laments.
But isn’t Nephi the First the same Nephi who was beaten by his elder brothers?
Who had to run away with half of his family to avoid being murdered?
Who had “wars and contentions” with his brothers’ families as soon as they separated? (2 Nephi 5:34)
But this Nephi’s time period is still used as a benchmark for great happiness, hundreds of years later by multiple people (Alma 50:33).
Why?
Because Nephi the First understood the same principle that President Nelson has taught: “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.”
Where is our focus?
Is it on what others have or on our personal progress towards our Savior?
If it is, we can “live after the manner of happiness” no matter the circumstance, just as Nephi the First did. (2 Nephi 5:27)
Don’t spend too much time looking over the fence at what others have.
The Savior will help you find your path to joy.
Written by Sarah Keenan
Art by Brian Kershisnik
