Chastizment

As we are reading about the brother of Jared and their group, they spent 4 years in one place. At the end of that time the Lord comes to the brother of Jared and spend three hours with him. It says he was chastised, but it does not say if the entire three hours was one long chastisement or if it was short and he and the Lord discussed other items. In my mind the lord took a significant amount of time to rebuke the brother of Jared for not communicating. I can not even imagine what it would be like to have a verbal admonishment from the Lord for 3 hours. I get a small amount from my boss and i feel like the day is shot. As i thought about this, i tried to relate it to my life. How often do i speak with my earthly parents? a couple times a month at best sometimes i may go a couple months. We all live busy lives and get caught up in the cares and worries of the world i can imagine the brother of Jared and his group were very busy trying to find food to eat and trying to stay safe. But even as busy as that I have a hard time understanding how you cold "forget" to speak to Heavenly Father for such a long time.

Churches

In our reading this week it stuck out that Jesus told the Nephites that they must name his church after him. If you name a church after a man it is the mans church so if it is named after Christ it belongs to Christ. It got me thinking about some of the names i have heard of churches. "The church of the Vine". does it belong to a grape vine or an ivy? The vineyard church. What vineyard? I know it sounds funny, but really? think of some of the crazy things we have heard churches called. I am very thankfull I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.

Can't Imagine

During our reading this week we read of the Saviors visit to the Nephites after his crucifixion. It is amazing to "listen" to the things he has to say to the people. How he tells them of the hope and the love he has for them. It is just as awesome to imagine being there and being able to study at the feet of the Master. During our reading, my wife asked if i could imagine being at the feet of the Lord and feeling the love he had for those around him. To my surprise, my answer was i could not. I could not imagine what it would be like to be there. i would love to know how it feels to enjoy the warmth and the love that being with Christ in person would be like, but for the life of me i can not get my head around how wonderful that would be. I grew up in a home where we were supposed to know that our parents loved us because they said so. And to give credit to them, my mother did show affection, but my dad really did not know how. He was never taught how to so he did the best he could and that was by providing for his family. Please don't get me wrong, i love my dad, but i don't have a first hand experience of what its like to have a close loving relationship with a father figure, so how could i possibly imagine what it would be like to sit a the feet of the savior, the one that loved us so much he agreed to die for us. believe my dad would have put his life on e the line for his children, but he never showed it, and therefore i never learned what it felt like. The only thing i can do is keep trying to get closer to the Lord so that when the time comes for me to go home, i will be able to feel the love he has for me.

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?

Wars

For this week our reading assignment was in the chapters of Alma that talk about the wars the Nephites had with the Laminites. One of the most interesting things that stood out  was the amount of trust their military leaders put in the Lord. If you study military history, you will find most armies operate on cunning and strategy. Almost never do you find a leader that says, i need to seek the lords council before we make a plan to invade. I can't help but wonder how history may have been changed if all our leaders would have had the faith Moroni had when he put all his trust in our Heavenly Father. How peaceful would the world be today if every time we felt like fighting or getting belligerent we fell to our knees and asked God to guide us in a more perfect path. What a great example Moroni is to all of us today.

Pride and Humility

As we were reading in our assigned chapters this week (Alma 30-35), It struck me as more than prideful when the Zoramites got on their Rameumptom to tell the Lord that they know they were better than everyone else and they were the only ones that were going to be saved. Now I have at times felt like we as members of the church have a kind of prideful declaration when we say we have the only true church. but to tell God that you are all that, WOW. I have read this story a bunch of times and I keep waiting for the lightning bolt to come out of the sky and strike them all dead.
 On of the things that stood out to me this time reading these chapters was the distinction of the different kinds of humility. I had not thought about that before. To humble yourself naturally or to be forced into humility. It seems to me we would all want to do the first because it seems to have no consequences, but when you stop and think about it, it really is easier to be forced into humility. There are normally unfavorable circumstances that make us humble, but i believe we usually learn far greater lessons by going through the refiners fire so to speak.

Alma

In the book of Alma it talks about Alma seeing the evil ways of his people and him wanting to do something about it. That sounds like a lot of what we hear now a days. Many of us see the bad things going on in the world and make comments like, I wish I could do something to help, or, if that we my kid I would...., But think about that for a moment. we can do something. We just chose not to because it puts us out of our comfort zone.
Now take the example of Alma. Not only did he say something, he did something. What common man in a position of authority, would give up the office of head of state to try and help people they don't know save their souls. I can not think of one person aside from the Apostles.
I wish I could say I would give it all up to help others, but I don't know if I have the kind of dedication that would require. I know I posses the love in my heart to help others and often do on a small scale, but we are talking about giving up a power that is unimaginable to most people. I hope to someday be able to say I would give up everything I have and am to be the kind of leader Alma was.