A Study of the Book of Mormon

Today I am following the footnotes under "Pondering", which actually are a listing a scriptures under the heading of " Meditation " in the Topical Guide. Joshua 1:8 is a jewel in that it has a promise attached to the principle. Here the Lord gives Joshua a commandment to meditate on the scriptures day and night that our actions may be in conformance with what is written. Then the promise is this: "for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." Prosperity and success are the promises (and I rather suspect that it is in matters of eternal weight and importance). Doctrine and Covenants 84:85 addresses meditation as treasuring in my mind the words of life. This is the value of the Word of God, that it merits my attention as a treasure.

1 Nephi 11:1 I suppose that I had always assumed that Nephi was praying when he has his vision of the tree of life when in fact he was pondering. How to define pondering? The footnote is a cross reference to the topic of meditation and to a verse of scripture where Joseph Smith describes a similar process before he received the vision of the degrees of glory (see D&C 76:19 ). Pondering is a thought process where I dedicate my entire mental capacity to the topic at hand. Doing so successfully allows for spiritual promptings, and, as in the case of Nephi and Joseph Smith, prepared them for heavenly visions.