OH, BY THE WAY – MOMENTS

6 And it came to pass that on the morrow, after we had prepared all things, much fruits and meat from the wilderness, and honey in abundance, and provisions according to that which the Lord had commanded us, we did go down into the ship, with all our loading and our seeds, and whatsoever thing we had brought with us, every one according to his age; wherefore, we did all go down into the ship, with our wives and our children.

7 And now, my father had begat two sons in the wilderness; the elder was called Jacob and the younger Joseph.

As I was reading in the 18th chapter of First Nephi, looking for something to stimulate me on what to write about for this week’s Thought for a Sabbath Day, I was struck by how these two verses, which contain a casual mention that there had been many children born into the families as they traveled and lived in the wilderness. Including two more sons which had been begotten by father Lehi, who were entered into the record almost as an ‘oh, by the way’ afterthought. He does off handedly mention that there were wives involved, except in the case of Lehi’s begetting.

Kathleen and I have had various discussions about how the scriptures might have contained very different versions of the historical accounts found therein if the authors had been women rather than men. It isn’t that women are always given bad press in the scriptures, it is that most of the time women are hardly given any press at all. I haven’t done one of those counts to identify the good women verses the bad women mentioned in the scriptures, but I have a suspicion there are just as many Jezebels mentioned as there are Ruths.

We have to give Nephi credit that he at least entered a few ‘oh, but the way’ verses in his record keeping, which is more than is often found in historical accounts.

I offer the following as an example of the view of how I, along with most men, seem to have a tremendously misconstrued idea of life’s realities.

I grew, was educated
And as the scripture says
I waxed strong in the ways of my father
And oh, by the way
I had a mother

I got married, had children
And as the scripture says
I became a provider following the example my father
And oh, by the way
Kathleen was her name

I became a teacher
And as the scripture says
Of the good word which I had been taught by my father
And oh, by the way
Kathleen nurtured the children

I served in His Kingdom
And as the scripture says
I attempted to follow His example as my father had done
And oh, by the way
Kathleen was by my side

I wish I could say the account related in these stanzas was totally without merit, but the truth is that sadly it bares record of the self-sightedness of much of the male population.

A more truthful historical account would probably go something like the following.

I grew, was educated
And as the scriptures should say
I waxed strong as my mother nurtured, encouraged and comforted me
And oh, by the way
My father was at work

I got married, Kathleen bore six children
And as the scriptures should say
The children became wonderful adults as she nurtured, encouraged and comforted them
And oh, by the way
I was at work

The children had many wonderful experiences
And as the scriptures should say
Because of Kathleen’s ironing, babysitting and office management toils
And oh, by the way
I was playing table tennis

She served in His Kingdom
And as the scriptures should say
Many of our Heavenly Parent’s children are closer to Them because of her discipleship
And oh, by the way
I was engaged in the busyness of church work

My prayer is that I have sufficiently exaggerated the point during this Thought, that we of the male gender will be more conscious of the reality of the existence of women and the contributions they constantly make in all of our lives and that they will never become an ‘oh by the way’ part of our histories.

There is an obvious oneness which should exist on earth and will exist in the eternities between male and female which can only be obtained when each half of the whole expresses the total necessity and importance of their other half and never allow them to become an ‘oh by the way’ part of our joint existence.

And Kathleen and William waxed old, comforted one another and entered eternity hand in hand.



THOUGHTS FOR A SABBATH DAY – WILLIAM L. RILEY

EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY