Mosiah 9

There is a lot of sorrow in Zeniff’s tale at the beginning of the chapter. His story of fathers and sons and brothers fighting against each other in the wilderness and then having to go home and tell their wives and children they had been killed trying to rescue or kill him. You can tell from those simple words his grief and sense of responsibility. I have a hard time imagining being so passionate about a cause that I would fight those I love over it. My family always seems more important than anything else. But I know it happens, like in the Civil War. It’s so tragic.

And then he goes on to call himself over-zealous. It’s all just tinged with so much remorse and regret. He truly died with a heavy heart. What am I over-zealous about that make me slow to remember God? Sometimes for me it is possessions, wanting more money and nicer things. Most of the time, I don’t really know what I am so distracted by. I guess it’s anything we are determined to do contrary to the will of God, or without even finding out if it’s His will and just pushing along trying to force things to be the way we want them to be. I’ve been feeling like that about living here in Yuba City. We knew so strongly we were supposed to come here, but since we’ve gotten here we’ve been trying to find a way to leave, instead of trying to find out what God’s will for us is here. I feel like we need to pray to know why He wants us here so that we can accomplish His purposes instead of just worrying about what we want. I write we, but I need to think in me. It’s my choices that I can control.

King Laman, the king of the Lamenites in the  story, waited 12 years before he made a move against the Nephites. I’m sure by then they felt safe and complacent. It’s a cautionary tale about the “all is well in Zion” trick of the devil. We have to always been watching and ready, never lazy in our spiritual preparation and fortification. That’s one thing, again, that has made this move harder is that we had gotten so lax about things like prayers and scripture study. So then when things got hard neither of us were spiritually prepared for the onslaught. It’s a lesson I hope I don’t ever have to relearn.

At the end of the chapter they go to battle in the strength of the Lord because they were awakened to a remembrance of the deliverance of their fathers and cried unto Him. I know that our trials do stir us up to remembrance, and I am grateful that when we remember he forgives and lifts us up.

Mosiah 9