The Book of Mormon claims to be a record of some of the ancestors of current Indigenous Americans (American Indians, Native Americans). This aspect of the book was especially important to early Mormons. What is the relationship between the Lamanites of the Book of Mormon and Indigenous Americans? How does modern DNA science help answer the question? Different Latter-day Saints (and critics) have answered these questions in radically different ways. Some argue DNA studies support the claims of the Book of Mormon. Others say the current information is not enough to answer the question. Others have claimed DNA science disproves the claims of the Book of Mormon.[1] Because I’m no scientist I’d like to address the question from a different direction.
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A few weeks ago, I got sick. It came on steadily throughout the day. I felt tired and miserable. My body ached. When DH got home, he sent me to bed. As I laid there, I started identifying where I felt pain. My waist hurt. My toes hurt. My belly button hurt. My elbows hurt. My knees and wrists hurt. All the places in between hurt. As I was lying there feeling sorry for myself, my thoughts broadened. Some people are in constant pain because of illness or disease. I felt both grateful and ashamed – grateful that pain was rare in my life, ashamed at how much more good I could be doing with my health and energy. I remembered Christ, whose pain in Gethsemane was so exquisite that He shed drops of blood. I thanked him silently for His sacrifice and for the love that motivated it. In this mindset, I fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I was much better – still tired, but not in pain.

I write about this because I want to remember it. It seems like I don’t fully appreciate my comfort until I feel pain. It seems like, at least in my life, pain and gratitude are linked.  I wonder how many other blessings I don’t recognize because they have always been there.

Is pain useful in your life? How do you help yourself to recognize blessings?

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Yes, I KNOW you’re all doing Malachi this week… I’m stubbornly posting my podcast on Lesson 15 anyway, because some people might still want to listen to it and I spent too much time re-recording after a system crash and data loss to just let it go. Next time, I’m combining several lessons and perhaps skipping one in order to get ahead. Right-click to download, or left-click to listen in your browser. LINK (about 11Mb, and 30 minutes long.) [Read more...]