When the servants and the king are discussing whether or not
Ammon is mortal, it makes me feel grateful for the power of the Lord in all of
our lives. Through Him we can do things and handle things and see things and be
things we could never be on our own. Our relationship with Him does make us
more than just men and women, and does give us access to the Divine, as it did
Ammon. What an amazing blessing!
It is interesting that in the Lamenite tradition there was a
God, but they didn’t worry about doing wrong things, and yet King Lamoni was
afraid because he had slain His servants. It is hard to understand the balance
between what we are taught, and the conscience that God has given all of us to
know right from wrong. I know that is why we cannot judge each other, we don’t
what parameters anyone is choosing within. But I do think it’s important that
no matter what he had been taught, in his hear, the king knew it was wrong as
was afraid.
When Ammon went to feed the kings horses right away it
reminds me of the conference
talk by Elder Dube about working in the fields with his mother, and not
looking back at what they had done, but forward to what still needed to be
done. I feel like I do this a lot, where I look back and feel satisfied with
what I have done, or even proud of it, and then I get lazy instead of moving
forward. I loved this talk, and Ammon is such a perfect example of that here.
The king was impressed with how faithful he was because he kept moving forward
to serve him. I want to be faithful to my King in the same way.
It is interesting to me that Mormon tells us Ammon was wise
but harmless and that he caught the king with guile – which is slyness or cunningness.
The king offered Ammon anything he wanted and Ammon said all he wanted was that
he would believe everything he said, which the King promised. Belief is a hard thing
to promise, though. I don’t know if I could whole-heartedly promise such a thing.
But perhaps it just softened his heart enough to allow him to believe. Do you suppose
what Mormon was saying was that Ammon could have been a great con-man if he hadn’t
been harmless?
I love that the way Ammon teaches the king was at his level,
baby food before steak and potatoes. The concept of Heaven could have been so complicated,
and he let it be so simple.
King Lamoni’s reaction to believing was wanting the same joy
that the Nephites had in the plan of salvation and the word of God. Sometimes missionary
work can be so scary, but this right here is really what it comes down to—wanting
to share the awesomeness of the truth.
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