Tag Archives: Integrity

Day 37: Being True to God

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Alma 11:22

Alma and Amulek’s face-off with the citizens of Ammonihah contains powerful testimony about the Savior from two of the Book of Mormon’s great missionaries. As I read about their interactions with Zeezrom, their chief interlocutor and one of Ammonihah’s leading community figures, I saw a clear application to our day.

In verse 22 Zeezrom sets up what he thinks will be an easy way to destroy Alma and Amulek’s preaching and all “that which was good” (v. 21). He offers Amulek six onties of silver (an onti was the highest value coinage in their society) to “deny the existence of a Supreme Being” (v. 22). Amulek’s testimony of God had become an important part of his character since meeting Alma. He valued the knowledge imparted by the angel who visited him, and he valued the goodness and blessings that God’s prophet (Alma) had brought to him and his household. So, in this moment, what did Amulek value more? Money or his knowledge, testimony, and self-respect?

What do we value today? Do we value our character? Our good name or reputation? What about virtue, honesty, or serving our neighbor? We are faced with Zeezrom-like offers every day, but Satan has increased their subtlety to the point where I think many of us don’t even recognize that we have traded something of eternal value for something of only fleeting worth.

We trade purity for the sating of curiosity. We trade self-respect for something material we want now. We trade a day’s or week’s labor for a promise of “winning big.” We trade the peace of home and the strength marriage for impersonal, physical gratification. We trade our health for a moment of pleasure. We trade agency for something we want now but can’t have. We trade future health and potential prosperity for brief, out-of-body experiences. We trade spiritual sensitivity and bodily strength for a few hours of fun. We trade godly standards for popularity. We trade honesty and integrity for the promise of “getting ahead.” We trade time to have some impersonal fun or entertainment with no tangible benefit. We trade commitment to God’s laws in order to sate ego.

As I read Alma 11:22 I realized that Satan’s subtlety has deceived me many times and led me to trade things of eternal value and significance for things that have no value in the long run. And in so many cases, the thing we trade for is just a counterfeit of what God offers us if we keep His commandments and remain true to Him. It is never wise nor eternally profitable to trade testimony, knowledge, agency, health, or peace of mind for worldly, material, and temporary things.

Like Amulek, let’s be true to God and honor the many gifts He has given us, not least of which are our agency, peace, even the air we breathe, life itself, and the promise of eternal life (see Mosiah 2:21, BoM). Let’s be true to God by being true to our best selves, the divine part of us that endures into eternity.

Day 35: Don’t Be Afraid to Stand Out

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Alma 5:57

I used to take pride in being a chameleon. I could walk into rooms without anyone noticing I was there, I could blend in with locals when I traveled out of the country. I kept my head down and tried not to stand out; I felt really safe.

As Alma preached to the people in Zarahemla while setting the Church in order, he admonished the members of the Church, “be ye separate.” In both the Old and New Testaments, the people of God are described as a “peculiar people” (cf. Deuteronomy 14:2 and 26:18, OT; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:9, NT). Modern prophets have continued citing this phrase to describe members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I think about this sometimes and how God intends for His people to stand out so that others see something different about us and wonder what they might be missing in their own lives.

Backtrack to my mission when one of my companions jaywalked everywhere we went. Late for the tram? Jaywalk to catch it just in time. Need to go to an appointment across this busy road but the nearest crosswalk is minutes away? Jaywalk. When I asked her about this habit, she said, “everyone here does it.” One thing I had learned as a missionary, we were not supposed to do and be like everyone else. We needed to stand out instead and use the crosswalks if for no other reason than nobody else did.

Alma’s admonition to “be ye separate” does not mean to hole away in bunkers until the Second Coming (think of my “chameleon” attitude), completely removing ourselves from society. We are supposed to separate ourselves from sin. We are meant to participate in our communities. But we should be noticeably different in how we present and carry ourselves, how we interact with others (in Christ-like ways), and in our level of honesty and integrity. Standing out can be so uncomfortable but it is becoming increasingly important to do so.