The Book of Mormon begins with rapid-fire stories of the Lord commanding His servants to act and the results of their actions. Nephi testified that the Lord gave commandments after preparing the way for them to be accomplished (1 Nephi 3:7). By 1 Nephi 17, the Lord led Nephi and his family out of danger, and they had been in the wilderness for eight years, being directed towards a promised land.
In his retelling of their experience, Nephi pauses—or I should say it felt like a pause to me, because these verses impacted me so deeply in an ordinary scripture study—to reiterate that
all these things were prepared of the Lord that we might not perish.
He recorded the Lord’s promises.
And I will also be your in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the ; and ye shall that it is by me that ye are led.
Yea, and the Lord said also that: After ye have arrived in the promised land, ye shall that I, the Lord, am ; and that I, the Lord, did you from destruction. . . .
This!
ye shall that I, the Lord, am ; and that I, the Lord, did you from destruction
He will prepare a way
The last 10 months flashed to my mind: Anthony stayed home from work a few minutes longer than normal. Wake up, Delisa! Standing across the street in the coldest morning of the season, watching smoke billow from our home. The promised eight-week restoration of the house was a grossly underestimated timeframe, but the Lord provided places of refuge. Through various life experiences, the Lord prepared Anthony to advocate for the correct restoration of our home. But we also suffered during our time in this wilderness. Anthony tore his meniscus while working on the house. Because of smoke damage, my piano was declared a total loss and was the only item not replaced by the insurance company. We had our last insurance and restoration company conversation mid-September 2025.
And while Anthony’s meniscus is still torn, and I haven’t replaced my piano, Anthony and I have come out of the house-fire wilderness.
Reading these verses and feeling the Lord punctuating them at the conclusion of our house-fire wilderness felt like the Lord highlighting that very foundational promise that He will always prepare a way for our deliverance from destruction.
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