THE LIAHONA

We compared a compass to the liahona. A compass is man-made -- liahona was prepared for Lehi by the hand of the Lord (2 Nephi 5:12). A compass works by allowing a magnetized needle to align itself with the earth's magnetic field -- liahona worked according to their faith in God. Alma teaches us that the word of Christ is our liahona. The words of Christ can come from several sources, including the scriptures, living prophets, patriarchal blessings and the Holy Ghost speaking to our conscience.
Nephi and his family faced difficult situations. One time Nephi's bow broke, his brothers bows lost their spring and there was no way to obtain their food. Nephi's family murmured (including Lehi). Instead of complaining Nephi made a new bow out of wood and an arrow out of a straight stick. We decided he was optimistic. Then Nephi went to his father, who was the prophet and asked where he should go to obtain food. Nephi was also honoring his father by asking him where he should go for food. Food was found and all were humbled. The moral is sometimes we just need to figure out plan B or C or D and just DO IT. It doesn't help to murmur.
Interesting tidbit of information: 1 Nephi 16:34 tells us....Ishmael died, and was buried in the place which was called Nahom. In verse 13 Nephi tells us that "we did call the name of the place Shazer." This indicates that they did not name Nahom -- it already had that name and probably others lived and visited Nahom. Soooooo, why is that so cool? Maybe Nephi was giving us a clue as to where they actually had traveled to from Jerusalem. A few years ago archaeologists discovered ancient alters in Yemen that bear the name Nahom. The alters dated back to the 7th or 6th century BC. Why do I think this is so cool? Joseph Smith could not have known 20th century archaeologists would find alters bearing the name Nahom. Pretty cool!