Day 34: Take Back Your Life

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Alma 2:4

I wanted to give you a little food for thought today. I was reading about Amlici in Alma 2 and came across this note in verse 4: “for it was his intent to destroy the church of God.” On the surface, Amlici wanted to be king and was willing to do anything to overturn the new system of government to get what we wanted. But with the piercing insight common to prophets, Alma pinpoints (or Mormon summarizes from Alma’s writings) that Amlici’s secret objective was to destroy the Church.

I couldn’t help but reflect on our modern society. There are a lot of forces at work in our society today that I don’t think come from God. Though these “forces” may not realize it nor acknowledge it, their end result is to bring people into bondage and destroy God’s work. Bondage takes many forms but its core effect is to limit our agency. Agency is a precious gift from God, one that is essential to our salvation because we have to choose salvation and work for it to actually achieve it. Satan wants to limit our agency in any way possible to prevent us from qualifying for and achieving eternal life.

I’ve been giving more thought lately to these societal forces and examining what effect they have on me. Some of these forces are universally acknowledged to have a terrible effect on people (like drugs), and some have varying effects on people. For me, I have noticed that media (all forms) impact me deeply. I have to regulate myself and be extremely picky about what I watch, listen to, and read. Two years ago I eliminated all live television programming from my life. I was in bondage to the television schedule. My viewing habits impacted how I treated my children and they ate up time I wanted to spend on church and personal projects. Not to mention how I obsessed over the content for days and my thoughts became absorbed by my media consumption.

I invite you examine the “hidden” forces in your life that are limiting your agency, prayerfully consider what you can do to free yourself, and take action. No matter how scary those changes may seem at the outset, you will be so much happier once you eliminate those influences from your life and free yourself.

Day 33: Stand Fast in the Faith

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Alma 1:24-25

Alma the younger was serving as the High Priest of the Church and as the first Chief Judge over the Nephites when the Church began facing a crisis of membership. Persecution, pride, sin, and apostasy began to take their toll and even “many [members] withdrew themselves from among them [the Church membership]” (v. 24). The emphasis on community and interpersonal relationships in this chapter suggested I pay attention to the family and friends who take part in and/or observe a loss of faith.

I have seen people withdraw from Church involvement in my own lifetime and noted what happens to the family members and friends who are closest to the individuals. As a youth I watched helpless as a friend left the church, only to be followed by her parents and siblings. Recently I have watched friends leave the Church, their spouses and young children remaining active for a time but eventually leaving the Church as well. I was a ministering sister to a couple who left the church years ago soon after three of their children “withdrew.” I sensed that my friends’ inactivity was a result of feeling hopeless: They wondered what they could have done more for their children but no longer saw a point in remaining active in the Church.

The response of the Nephite church members is instructive. “Now this was a great trial to those that did stand fast in the faith” (v. 25). I appreciate that the writer here acknowledges how difficult (heart-rending even) it is to watch members of your church community (friends and family likely) lose their faith and withdraw from participation in the Church. But pay attention to how they deal with their disappointment: “nevertheless, they were steadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of God” (v. 25). In the case of my ministering family, I felt strongly that if they would renew their faith and be steadfast in keeping the commandments, they could bring so many blessings to their entire family. It would not be a hopeless case if they would keep the faith and honor their covenants.

I really believe that if we will honor our covenants, keep the commandments, be steadfast and immoveable, God will keep His promises to us, even to benefit and bless loved ones who have left the Church.

Day 32: Conversion and Salvation

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Mosiah 27:23-31

Alma the younger’s conversion provides one of the finest examples in the scriptures of the power and mercy of God. Alma the younger was on a collision course with eternal damnation but, through the faith and prayers of his father (as well as family and friends), Alma was given an opportunity to change directions. He went from “vilest sinner” (Mosiah 28:4)––intent on destroying the Church––to preacher, high priest, and missionary. God showed Alma great mercy in sending an angel to call Alma to repentance.

When Alma revives after being struck dumb as a result of the angel’s visit, he arises and testifies of his conversion, the mercy of God, and the Plan of Salvation, as in verses 25-26:

Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;

And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. (Mosiah 27:25-26)

I love the phrasing in verse 25, that the Plan of Salvation applies to “all mankind”; lest you think that excludes anyone, “yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people.” No one is excluded from God’s plan for the eternal happiness and salvation of His children. And furthermore, we are ALL His children! He loves each of us––regardless of where mortality has placed us, regardless of the differences of culture, language, color, or political affiliation that have become distinguished on earth––and He wants us to succeed in qualifying for the greatest blessing He has to offer.

Day 31: A Testimony of Christ

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Mosiah 26

The Book of Mormon is replete with the words of Christ and testimonies of Him from His prophets, angels, missionaries, and disciples. I find the dialogue of Mosiah 26 especially beautiful. The premortal Christ responds personally to Alma the elder’s concerned pleading for help on how best to administer the Church in Zarahemla and deal with apostasy and persecution. I don’t feel the need to embellish this section with too many of my own words so allow me to highlight and make brief comments on the passages that really stand out to me:

  • God makes the all-important statement of existence: “I am the Lord their God” (v. 26)
  • God clarifies His role as the Creator: “it is I that hath created them” (v. 23)
  • He states one of His essential roles: “I am their Redeemer” (v. 26)
  • God testifies of Himself and His supernal role: “it is I that taketh upon me the sins of the world” (v. 23)
  • God confirms His power and the qualifications for salvation and exaltation: “it is I that granteth unto him that believeth unto the end a place at my right hand” (v. 23)
  • God acknowledges the official organization over which Alma presides: “this is my church” (v. 22)
  • He declares His mercy: “as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me” (v. 30)

Jesus Christ created our earth and mankind under the direction of His Father. He took upon Himself the conditions of mortality in order to understand what we, His children, experience so that He can best help us. He suffered, bled, and died to make repentance viable, forgiveness possible, and gift Resurrection to everyone who has lived, lives, or will live on the Earth.

Day 30: Trusting in the Lord

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Mosiah 21-24

There is so much to admire in Alma the elder who risked his life to try and save Abinadi, then defied King Noah to teach the Gospel, and eventually become a prophet in turn. Mosiah 23-24 present a neat parallel to Mosiah 21-22. These chapters compare how Alma’s people deal with the same challenges as Limhi’s people, both groups having become client kingdoms in servitude to the Lamanites. Where Limhi’s people feared the Lamanites and tried to fight their way out of bondage, Alma’s people replaced their fear of man with trust in the Lord, prayers for help, and patience in His plan.

Nine and a half years ago my mission companions and I created a lesson based on Mosiah 24:13-16. The message really touched our friend (for whom we originally planned the lesson): she identified with Alma’s people in bondage (she was in advanced schooling at the time and studying for a difficult exam), and felt strengthened by their example of faith in God, the promise of eventual deliverance, and the help God provided in the midst of their trial while waiting for the right timing.

What I really want to share, though, is that as our week progressed, we taught this lesson no less than four other times in different appointments. It seemed everyone we met with needed this message that week! I have seen this happen in other settings where multiple people I know are going through the same or similar difficulties at the same time. But I also want to highlight the universality of the challenges explored in Mosiah 21-24. So much of mortality is a fight against bondage. Our spirits are in bondage to sin, our mortal bodies are predisposed to doing things that create additional scenarios of bondage/limitation of freedom. My takeaway from Mosiah 21-24 is that I can either rely on my own strength to free myself (like Limhi’s people), or I can ask God for help and trust in His mercy and timing (like Alma’s people). Both groups were eventually freed but Alma’s group shines in their faith, patience, attitude, and the comparative ease with which they succeeded––all because they trusted in God and waited for Him to work His miracles.

Day 29: Covenant Friendship

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Mosiah 21:30-32

When I was a child, friendship became a sore point for me. I had trouble making and keeping friends. It seemed every friend I made at school eventually decided they would rather be friends with someone else. I did not have the worst or most lonely childhood, but I did often reflect on the nature of friendship and wondered if I would ever have enduring friendships outside of my family.

Friendship came to mind as I read Mosiah 21:30-32, in which the writer records a change of attitude toward Alma and his people. Alma and his followers had fled into the wilderness to escape King Noah and his goons. It is safe to say that Alma and his people had made themselves social outcasts by embracing the Gospel and entering the waters of baptism (the rest of their society was still wicked). It is also safe to say that Noah’s people were not friends with Alma’s people and they didn’t really care what happened to Alma’s group.

The change in attitude recorded in Mosiah 21 is striking. First we read that the envoys from King Mosiah feel sorrow for the loss of Alma and his people, “[y]ea they did mourn for their departure” (v. 31). Ammon’s group had never even met Alma! But because “they themselves had entered into a covenant with God” they “would have gladly joined with [Alma’s group].” Both Ammon’s group and Alma’s group had made covenants with God and it seems to me that Ammon’s group felt an immediate kinship with them. As I read verse 31, I felt that Limhi’s people were implicitly included in the kinship hinted at because “king Limhi had also entered into a covenant with God, and also many of his people” (v. 32).

I no longer worry so much about friendship, partly because I have discovered wonderful people to become friends with. But also because I have learned the power of covenant friendships. When I have lived and travel abroad I feel an immediate and close attachment to people I meet in whom I sense a deep commitment to God. Shared belief creates a foundation on which we build our friendship. My covenants lead me to try to see people as God sees them. I focus on service and Christ-like love. The shared experience of our faith knits our hearts together.

Day 28: Seeing Eye to Eye, Part II

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Mosiah 16:1

This idea of seeing eye to eye has intrigued me for years. What I have deduced from continued study and pondering is that seeing eye to eye means that a certain level of understanding has been achieved and everyone involved operates on the same level or plane of understanding. Abinadi is definitely focused on a specific set of knowledge that all people on earth will gain in this moment; namely that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and Savior and Redeemer of the world.

Abinadi’s prophecy, like other similar prophecies, has always given me hope on a personal level, however. Where interpersonal conflicts and disagreements are concerned, I usually think about this prophecy and wonder if it could also mean that people who have wronged me will recognize their error and we will resolve our differences. Or that people who have argued together over an issue will realize and embrace the truth; it’s not about who’s right, it’s about everyone recognizing the truth at the heart of the matter. Or that multiple people party to an ambiguous situation will finally all understand the truth of it.

Whether this will happen or not, the fact of the prophecy that all people will come to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is a really big deal to me. Multiple prophets have repeated this prophecy. Its boldness underscores its truth in my mind. The prophets already knew the truth and they tried to help the people of their day gain that testimony as well. But regardless of who chooses to believe now, at a given time EVERYONE will know.

Day 27: The Ten Commandments

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Mosiah 12-13

It is little wonder to me that Abinadi, when questioned by the priests of Noah, began to teach them the Ten Commandments. It was a sharp rebuke for the priests who claimed to represent God, but did not keep His commandments. The Ten Commandments provide the foundation for laws across the world and they are fundamental to maintaining peace throughout the world. The Book of Mormon teaches that when a nation begins to transgress God’s commandments, it will eventually fall (e.g. Omni 1, BoM).

Thoughts of how I can be a better mother and what I should do to create more spiritual direction for our family have been weighing on my mind. The other day as I was praying, the Spirit suggested that we teach our kids the Ten Commandments.

We talk a lot in our home and at church about “keeping the commandments.” As adults we know what that means but our kids don’t. They’re at the beginning of their mortal experience. To say repeatedly, “keep the commandments,” becomes nebulous unless you actually identify what they are. Kids need repetition to know what the commandments are, learn them by heart (Mosiah 13:11), understand what they mean, and actually live them. By way of reminder for us all, the Ten Commandments are:

  • Thou shalt have no other God before me (Mosiah 12:35)
  • Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image; Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them (Mosiah 13:12-13)
  • Thou shalt no take the name of the Lord thy God in vain (Mosiah 13:15)
  • Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy (Mosiah 13:16
  • Honor thy father and thy mother (Mosiah 13:20)
  • Thou shalt not kill (Mosiah 13:21)
  • Thou shalt not commit adultery (Mosiah 13:22)
  • Thou shalt not steal (Mosiah 13:22)
  • Thou shalt not bear false witness (Mosiah 13:23)
  • Thou shalt not covet (Mosiah 13:24)

(I have quoted from the Book of Mormon but you can also review the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, Old Testament )

Now my challenge is to come up with age-appropriate lessons for each commandment. If you have any ideas, feel free to comment here or use my contact form. Thanks in advance!

Day 26: Timely Lessons for Election Season

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Mosiah 11

I was really trying to avoid getting political but I can’t ignore the many chapters in this part of the Book of Mormon that provide timely counsel about choosing government leaders. Bear with me. I will not make any allusions to past or current leaders in any country of the world. I want to present the information contained in these chapters because I find it important and instructive. Maybe it will help you, too.

I never cease to be intrigued by how quickly the Nephite and Lamanite nations organized themselves with some form of law and government out of nothing. Remember, three families sailed across the ocean in about 600 BCE to an unknown, uncharted land and created whole civilizations from the ground up. Their initial means of political organization––kingship––lasted for hundreds of years.

Mosiah 11 continues the history of a splinter group that left the core Nephite population (then under the guidance of King Mosiah I) and founded its own community some distance away in the land originally inhabited by Nephi’s family. They appointed their community’s founder, Zeniff, as king. By Mosiah 11, the son of Zeniff has become king:

Noah began to reign…. [H]e did not keep the commandments of God, but he did walk after the desires of his own heart…. [H]e laid a tax of one fifth part of all [the people] possessed…. [H]e put down all the priests that had been consecrated by his father…such as were lifted up in the pride of their hearts…. [A]nd thus they were supported in their laziness, and in their idolatry, and in their whoredoms. (Mosiah 11:1-3, 5)

It is bad enough that “the people labor[ed] exceedingly to support iniquity” (remember the heavy tax?) and that their king was really wicked, but what I find most instructive is how the attitude and behavior of the king impacted his subjects: “And he did cause his people to commit sin, and do that which was abominable in the sight of the Lord. Yea, and they did commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness” (Mosiah 11:2, emphasis added). In one generation, this brand new community founded and led at first by righteous leaders, turns to sin. “They also became idolatrous” (v. 7), “they were lifted up in the pride of their hearts…they did boast, and did delight in…the shedding of the blood of their brethren [the Lamanites]” (v. 19). The Book of Mormon writers make it abundantly clear where the blame lies for the degeneration of this community. The community became wicked “because of the wickedness of their king and priests” (v. 19, emphasis added).

This topic of the effect wicked rulers have on society surfaces again at the end of Mosiah and elsewhere in the Book of Mormon. It behooves us to pay attention. One lesson I take from this theme is a warning against wicked leaders and the damage they cause to society. Another lesson that has informed my application of the American political process is that the merits of a potential government leader can and should be judged by what s/he inspires his/her followers to do. In other words, look at how the supporters of a candidate behave and how they apply the candidate’s platform/rhetoric in their active support (e.g. stumping, at rallies, on social media). “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20, NT; 3 Nephi 14:20, BoM). A candidate who inspires his/her supporters to do anything contrary to God’s laws is a candidate who likely does not deserve my vote.

Day 25: Choose to Believe

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Mosiah 8:20-21

O how marvelous are the works of the Lord, and how long doth he suffer with his people; yea, and how blind and impenetrable are the understandings of the children of men; for they will not seek wisdom, neither do they desire that she should rule over them!

Yea, they are as a wild flock which fleeth from the shepherd, and scattereth, and are driven, and are devoured by the beasts of the forest.

In my quest to become a disciple of Jesus Christ (to be serviceable and obedient), I have noticed my own predilection for contrariness. A big part of me fights against being obedient, following the promptings of the Spirit, and desiring godly things enough to act. For example, I knew I needed to serve a mission for a long time before I could bring myself to even fill out the paperwork. As I tried to bring myself around to this personal commandment, I began praying for a desire to serve. Like Ammon exclaimed to Limhi in Mosiah 8:20, the Lord suffered long with me: He was patient and kind and helped me prepare to serve well even as I “fled” from Him.

The Prophet Brigham Young taught that sometimes members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “live far beneath [their] privileges” (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. by John A. Widtsoe [1954], 32; qtd in New Testament Teacher Manual, Lesson 30). Certainly Ammon thought so of humankind in general! And while God will suffer long with us because He loves us, if we want to learn the mysteries of God, gain wisdom, and achieve our greatest potential, we have to choose to believe, we have to act out of an inner desire to learn and achieve.

I know from experience that the path of discipleship is no cake walk. Maybe you, like me, “tremble inwardly at what may be required” (Neal A. Maxwell, “Consecrate Thy Performance”, General Conference [Apr. 2002]). But, whatever you do, don’t run away! Choose to believe, pray for a desire to believe if you need to. The Lord will suffer long with you and He will help you not only become your best self, but He will help you achieve marvelous good in this life and receive eternal life in the next.