Nephi

Last night we re-enacted the story of Nephi for Family Home Evening. (Its from the scriptures folks). Brother got to be Nephi (the good minder, the obedient son... we were going for a theme). King was Lehi. Sister and I were Laman and Lemuel. (The grumpy guys. The murmurers /whiners). Lucky us. We left Jerusalem, went back to get the plates (scriptures), got Ishmaels family, broke our bow, got the Liahona, and started building a boat.
Anyhow- the point is- Brother loved it. It's even paying of SLIGHTLY to remind him he's like Nephi and he needs to be a great minder.
This morning he was begging to don the bathrobes again and pretend we were Nephi, Laman, and Lemuel again. He refused to let sister be Sam. He even called her Lemuel all morning. Oh well. The funny part is all the twists that showed up in the story this morning. I was called Laman or Grumpy Guy all morning. I was chastised for not being grumpy enough and for saying, "please." He asked if I was grumpy because I didn't take a nap. (Yes!) All of a sudden the Liahona helped you fly with a hot air balloon. Nephi finally got to make a campfire- but he had to cook marshmallows. And every night he cooked hamburgers and ate cold cheese. I wonder if Nephi knew he got such a good menu. I had to try and not smile.
So here's my hat off to Nephi for being such a good son. A good minder. A good role-model for MY son. The Lord knew what he was doing when he put the story of an imperfect family in the Book of Mormon first. A great father, a lot of hardships, some good and some awful brothers, new challenges, brave women having children in the wilderness etc. etc. etc. He knew that story would get read the most frequently. And I'm so glad.