The Touch of the Master

  The story behind the brother of Jared is important in many ways. The part that I will focus on is when the brother of Jared faces the dilemma of how to have light on the barges. His people, the Jaredites, were told to cross the sea to get to the land of promise. So, the brother of Jared,  with the guidance of God, built barges to cross the sea. However, he faced several problems, one of which was that they didn't have light inside their barges. They could not resolve the problem themselves so the brother of Jared sought out the help of God. His response is given in (Ether 2:23) in which He asks the brother of Jared what should be done. So, God puts matters into the hands of Jared's brother.  "And it came to pass that the brother of Jared, (now the number of the vessels which had been prepared was eight) went forth unto the mount, which they called the mount Shelem, because of its exceeding height, and did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones; and they were white and clear, even as transparent glass; and he did carry them in his hands upon the top of the mount, and cried again unto the Lord." (Ether 3:1) The brother of Jared put forth his very best effort: he climbed a very high mountain; he molted sixteen stones, even though they only really needed eight for each ship; lastly he made each one like glass which was undoubtedly very hard for anyone at that time. Even though he put forth his best effort, they still didn't shine. However, when he approached God and asked for his help, the stones were made to shine. Often times even our best efforts don't succeed as we want them too. We do our best and work diligently to accomplish something but our work is still dull. Yet, when we turn to the Lord for His help and His touch we can truly see a miracle as our dull works are made to be brilliant.