Thursday, July 25, 2013

Alma 8



I love that it says Alma returned to his own house to rest. Sometimes it is hard for me not to feel guilty for needing to rest. I feel like I should always be doing something, there is always more that could or needs to be done. But rest matters
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It is interesting the behavior of the wicked people in Ammonihah. They used the “you’re not the boss of me” argument to not listen, as though he was trying to force them to believe and all the time they were plotting to take away other people’s agency. It feels really common in modern experience for people to say that preaching to them is trying to take away their agency, while not wanting to allow people to believe differently that they do. Has Satan really gotten trickier, or do we just never learn from his tricks?

I love that Alma was humble enough to return when asked to, even though the people had treated him so poorly, and as he says to Amulek, he had set his back towards them forever. I know that feeling of wanting to be done with people and hurtful situations. I want to follow Alma’s example and just say, “I’ll go where You want me to go.”

I wonder why he tarried many days with Amulek before returning to preaching. Was it a time of rest? Or was the Lord giving Amulek a lot of time to learn from and feel the power and spirit of a prophet before asking him to go and preach and sacrifice so much? Again, I appreciate the tender mercies of the Lord not asking anyone to run faster than they are able. And I think that is an important thing to think about before we ask people to serve—making sure they are nourished and ready.

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