Giving Comfort

 "Their Joy was Full" by Walter Rane

I love what the story of Lehi and Sariah teaches me about Living in Truth. While living in the wilderness, Lehi sends his sons back to Jerusalem to get Ishmael’s family. The sons are gone a long time and Sariah’s worries and fears cause her to fall into the Pit of Illusion. Naturally when in the Pit we begin to exaggerate and complain and Sariah is no exception. She says to Lehi, “Behold thou hast led us forth from the land of our inheritance, and my sons are no more, and we perish in the wilderness.”

But Lehi is not distracted from Truth. He doesn’t chastise her and tell her she shouldn’t be saying such things. The Truth is she has said them and does feel them. He accepts that and responds by bearing testimony to her, “I know that I am a visionary man; for if I had not seen the things of God in a vision I should not have known the goodness of God, but had tarried at Jerusalem, and had perished with my brethren. But behold, I have obtained a land of promise, in the which things I do rejoice; yea, and I know that the Lord will deliver my sons out of the hands of Laban, and bring them down again unto us in the wilderness” (1 Nephi 5:4-5).

As Nephi goes on to say, “After this manner of language did my father, Lehi, comfort my mother, Sariah.” By staying in Truth, Lehi comforts instead of chastising, condemning, or calling to repentance. But there is something not written here that is important. By staying in Truth and bearing testimony (speaking words of Truth) Lehi invites the Spirit to be part of the conversation and that is what makes the comforting possible. When the Spirit (The Comforter)is present, comfort occurs.