How would you feel if you had to just all of a sudden make a ship?

So 1 Nephi 17...wow. After all the hard work Nephi has done he has to be tired from traveling, keeping his faith, dealing with the opposition his brothers give him and caring for his family. Nephi is so good to name their great blessings at the beginning of the chapter. How many of us would name allthe great afflictions? He mentions afflictions, but he is specific about the great blessings. I think that is a fantastic example of how we need to live our lives. So after this and some years later the Lord tells him to go up a mountain(vs.7) and when he gets there (vs. 8) the Lord says, "Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters." I think my heart would sink a little if I was given this commandment. I think I would feel tired, overwhelmed and maybe a little like...when will this ever end. But I do think we can take this and look in our past and see what "ships" we were asked to construct. There are times we are asked to do something unexpected and overwhelming for us. I know that for me, when I felt I needed to serve a mission, it was sudden but it was clear to me. I think that was a "construct a ship" moment in my life. I was scared and nervous, but I obeyed and did it immediately and was blessed greatly for it. So maybe I wouldn't sink in my heart, actually I think I did a little when I felt I needed to go on a mission, but then it turned to excitement and wonder. I think we take Nephi's experience and keep it somewhere inside of us for when we have more "construct a ship" moments in our lives so that we can have courage and faith the move forward more boldy. The more we practice this the greater the work we can accomplish with the Lord.

Later in the chapter Laman and Lemuel tell Nephi that he is a fool to think he could construct a ship. I wonder if it is just annoying to Nephi to have to deal with them over and over and over again. I personally get so annoyed with constant negativity. It irritates me to hear negative things all the time because I am a believer that if there is a will, there is a way. Learned that one from my mom and I will always hear those words forever ringing in my mind. However, I can see that maybe it was hard for Laman and Lemuel to believe because it probably seemed so far out of left field for Nephi to construct a ship. If they had any faith they would have been able to believe, but I do see where they are coming from. I hope I have never limited myself or another because of unbelief in someone or not enough faith in the Lord. I would really feel terrible. Also, maybe Laman and Lemuel were feeling jealous or their pride really kicked in because their younger brother was so amazing and could accomplish anything because of his faith. Maybe that was a hard pill for them to swallow and so all they could do was be negative and try to bring him down to failure. I think that that is a natural behavior for some people as well. It is good to recognize how these prideful ways can be very devastating and limiting to what can really be accomplished.