Nephi is seeing the vision of the tree of life. In it there is a big group of people in a great and spacious building who are mocking the people who are holding onto the rod that leads to the tree of life.
The fruit of the tree of life is the love of God.
The iron rod leading to the tree is the word of God.
The great and spacious building and the people in it represent the pride of the world.
"As many as heeded [the multitude in the great and spacious building] had fallen away."
So the question is, how to prevent yourself from doing that. The first non-corpus linguistics questions so far, by the way. A personal question.
I asked my husband and kids at breakfast what they thought. They had these ideas:
- focus on holding onto the rod, i.e. reading your scriptures and saying your prayers
- don't worry about what other people think of you
How do you just not worry?
It is kind of like when Danny went on his mission. I remember I was sobbing huge crocodile tears of sadness. I called Danny's dad and talked to him on the phone. "What am I going to do?" His dad said, somewhat coldly, "well...suck it up!"
I wrote that on an index card. Because I'm a dork. It became a bookmark in my scriptures.
Actually, that advice, as cold as it sounds, was great. Suck it up.
Something that significantly helps me to care less about what other people think is to consistently read the scriptures. The scriptures are totally full of the message that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is the Christ. They testify that God loves his children. They testify that we are important to him. They testify of justice and mercy. They testify of the ability for us to repent when we screw up. They are a very strong source of positive motivation to keep living righteously and to keep the covenants I've made. I really value them, very deeply. There's no coincidence that the iron rod is a representation of the word of God. It is steadfast, sure, unwavering.
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