Sustaining Our Prophet

Sustaining our Prophet 

I passionately agree with George Albert Smith's comment that was quoted by Elder Russell M. Nelson, in his talk called, " Sustaining the Prophets". He explained when sustaining the prophets; " The obligation that we make when we raise our hands...is a most sacred one. It does not mean that we will go quietly on our way and be willing that the prophet of the Lord shall direct his work, but it means that we will stand behind him; we will pray for him; we will defend his good name and we will strive to carry out his instructions as the Lord shall direct." As we have began our journey reading about Lehi and his group crossing the wilderness, we have seen Nephi sustain his father Lehi- the prophet, in so many ways. Nephi with courage and faith followed every instruction given by his father. We have seen Nephi go back to Jerusalem at the request of his father multiple times; we have seen him pray to understand his father's visions; we have seen him even follow his father after seeing his weakness come out, when Nephi broke his bow and Lehi did complain against the Lord ( 1 Nephi 16:20 ); and even after Nephi was instructed to build a boat; was ridiculed by his brothers about this, and continued on with God's instruction anyways, the Lord did still give the highest instruction to Lehi the prophet as we see in 1 Nephi 18:5, it says, " And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came unto my father, that we should arise and go down into the ship." At this point Nephi could have easily thought that all of the work was being done by him, and that the boat that he made was finished, so shouldn't the Lord tell him that they should go down into the ship? But, Nephi did not. Nephi gave us a wonderful example of sustaining the prophet and he taught us that just because our calling is not that of a prophet, it is still highly important, and that our Heavenly Father needs us all individually. Nephi gave us a prime example of what Joseph F. Smith said, as quoted by Elder Russel M. Nelson, in " Sustaining the Prophets", he said, " It is an important duty resting upon the saints who sustain authorities of the church, to do so not only by the lifting of the hand, the mere form, but in deed and truth."