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“… But behold I, Nephi, will show unto you [the reader] that the tender mercies of the Lordare over all those [people] whom he [the Lord] hath chosen, because of their [the people’s] faith, to make them [the people] mightyeven unto[to a degree that extends to] the power of deliverance .” So Nephi’s thesis in writing on the plates is to teach us that the “tender mercies of the Lord” are designed to make people with faith mighty to a degree that extends to the power of deliverance… In other words, One of God’s blessings is making people mighty enough to deliver themselves…
That is a reasonable reading – and it can be interpreted in light of an atonement that is either literal or figurative. There is an important part of faith…and that is action, not just belief. So…the value of religion and believing in LDS teachings is that it helps us believe that God strengthens us and helps us beyond just our meager efforts. That faith can help us do things we didn’t know we could do, and some things become self-fulfilling prophecies…the Lord makes weak things stronger…so therefore I will try to do this hard stuff because I believe I’m being helped and in doing so can do more things than I think I can.
It is why religion is powerful in our lives. I felt like Sambee was hinting at that with his thread from Jung’s quotes in the youtube video…when society is lacking spirituality, we lack some of these exalting thinking, and left susceptible to mental illness.
Is God really “giving us power” or is our faith overcoming damnation of thoughts that limit our power we create ourselves?
I think back to the analogy of Dumbo’s feather. In the story Dumbo had the capacity to fly but needed a prop in order to believe in himself. However, there are also multitudes of individuals that do not have the capacity to fly and giving them a feather is not going to change that.
I believe that there are some things in our own lives that we can change and some things in our life that we cannot change. How do we learn the difference? By effort, courage, and experience. If we move forward in faith and courage, putting our shoulder to the wheel to make the best of our circumstances – we will likely accomplish a fair amount that is within our scope of influence.
If I believe that “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me” and then move forward to do them, I will likely look back on my life and find that I did indeed do many things. Did I do “all things”? No. Could I do “all things”? No. But by moving forward in faith I was able to do much that was within my power.
The special Olympics has a motto that I believe sheds light on this.
Quote:“Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”
Not everyone can win but almost everyone can participate and push themselves to reach their own personal “best.”
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