Pigments & Ponderings

  Lehi’s Dream & the Effect of the Heart   The Tree of Life-    mixed media by Nikki In this essay, I want to explore the 3 different groups that Lehi saw in his dream found in 1 st Nephi of the Book of Mormon. As I started the Prophets’ Book of Mormon challenge, I began with the intent to not just read, but to really internalize what I was reading that time. When I got to Chapter 8, I noticed things I hadn’t before and so I decided to do a deep dive to answer some questions that were persisting in my mind.   In this dream, the prophet Lehi sees 3 different groups of people who set out toward the Tree of Life, but as we know, only one of those groups is successful in not only making it to the tree, but in staying with the tree.  It’s interesting that, despite these different conclusions, all 3 groups are described with the action verb of “ pressing forward ”.  This implies that all have...

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace- Artist unknown   Divine Protection (& the faith to say "but if not") In October 2015, a student at Umpqua Community College killed 9 people and injured several others. Witnesses said that he had asked a few of the victims what religion they were and others he just shot for seemingly no reason.   This tragedy struck close to home for several reasons: First, my oldest son and his family are, and were, at the time of this shooting, living in Roseburg where this college is located. And secondly, the killer had asked some of his victims if they were Christian… I had never really given any thought to religious persecution at least on a personal level, I never even thought it could ever happen to me, but then this tragedy happened… Questions I had never conceived before came and persisted in my mind: Am I willing to die for the Lord and His gospel? Would I have the courage to say, yes, I am a Christian, even with a gun poi...

Beautiful Balance Watercolor by Nikki Andreasen Beautiful Balance Why opposition is needful   Ancient Chinese philosophy teaches that for life to be balanced and whole, there is a need for opposition.   They call this Yin and Yang: Two opposing and contrary forces mirrored to create a whole.   Each side of the whole is a complete contrast to the other: a light and a dark, a positive and a negative, a coming and a going, a living/growing and a dying.   Though obviously opposite and contrary, they are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they each give rise to the other as they interrelate to one another. You can’t have one without the other. I had never really given the Yin and Yang symbol much thought until I started to learn more about it and to understand the role of Yin (what I previously might have considered as the “bad” or “dark” side).   At a meditation course I attended, I learned that nothing is fu...

  Building Barges And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you.  - Ether 2:25  Brother of Jared selecting stones  I don't know who painted this picture, so if you do,  please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.     Ether 2: 16-20- I find it super interesting that the Lord would give the Brother of Jared (Mahonri Moriancumer) instructions to build something that seems to have such obvious "flaws" as not providing light nor air.   As I have pondered on this, I have learned three things so far. First, this tells me that the Lord’s way is not to give us the "whole" of everything all at once. We see this pattern a lot in the early restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints where things were given line upon line, a lot of the time having to be refined through trial and error.   After pondering on why that is so, I believe that in the Lord’s wisdom, he ...

Art Credit: James Coates.  His beautiful artwork can be found here: https://i.etsystatic.com/9350268/r/il/d8997a/1734994664/il_794xN.1734994664_ilni.jpg Seeking A Witness (&   why it’s important)  In the very first chapters of the Book of Mormon, Lehi’s family goes through a major upheaval when everything about their life changed overnight. This, as we know, didn’t go over very well with Laman and Lemuel.  The difference in attitude between Nephi and these brothers is explained in the following verse.     1 Ne. 2:16 " …wherefore,  I did cry unto the Lord ; and behold he did visit me, and  did soften my heart  that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father;  wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers." I had always assumed Nephi was 100% on board with his father from the beginning.  But through this last, careful reading, I noticed an important statement I hadn’t be...