Friday, February 12, 2016
Could I??
As we read about Samuel the Laminite this week i thought about how the Nephite people must have felt. I know they were at a time when they had chosen to accept and participate in great iniquity. But all their lives they had been told they were the chosen people, they were loved of God and were better than everyone else. They were a prosperous people. Then out of nowhere, a man gets on the city wall and says you are evil, you need to repent and stop what you are doing. From the outside looking back I can see why the Lord would do this, but if i were in that time, could i have been one of the ones that took his sermon to heart and sought Nephi to ask for forgiveness and baptism? I like to think I am close enough to the spirit to be able to know when i am off course and need to take heed of what i am being prompted to do, but could i have done that then? If you grow up being told by your parents, friends, and family that you are righteous, good, and chosen, would you be able to humble yourself when an "Enemy of the State", a "Laminite" chastises you to repentance? I know most people will say absolutely, but really? Please. Put yourself in the shoes of the wicked Nephites and dig deep, then ask yourself the same question. I want to believe i would, but i just don't know. So now i will sit and wonder, if I have doubts, how can i judge the reactions of those people?
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Great insight. I think, in a way, Mormons have to watch for the mindset of being a "chosen" people who are therefore "special" or even (in some people's minds) "better." I think that's why it's important to keep an open mind when someone with a different religious affiliation or viewpoint calls us out on something- they might be seeing something that we really do need to repent of or change that we've become blind to because of our culture or habits. (The same can be said for any religion, really.) Any time we start to think we don't need to listen to someone else, that's usually pride. It doesn't hurt to try to understand where someone else is coming from, and if we listen then we have the chance to learn, whether we end up agreeing with that person or not.
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