Alma 37:3-5

After Alma gives Helaman the command to keep the plates he explains the importance of what he has commanded. I am sure that helped Helaman want to live up to the command. And it feels like an important lesson to me. As a mom, lots of times I just want to give a command and have it obeyed. I get annoyed with questions about what I have asked. I need to be more patient, and help the boys understand the significance or reason behind what I am asking. It will help me maintain a moral authority, but also help them understand and grow and have buy in to what we are trying to accomplish in our lives. And I really just need to be more patient in general and not so easily annoyed!

Alma 37:3-5

Alma 37:1-2

I am hung up on the word command this morning. Alma didn’t ask his son Helaman to be in charge of the records, he commanded him. Bishop Kim always said ours is a church of assignments, not volunteers. I suppose it is like a calling. But even then, they always ask, not command.

…As I thought about this through the day, I realized as I was putting Helaman to bed that commanded was better than asking because it would help Helaman feel more responsibility to do it. At least it would for me if I was given a command by someone who I felt like had authority over me.

MaryAnn Lewis and I were talking about that during Sunday School. The lesson was about Jesus calling the Pharisees hypocrites and how they did not react well to the correction. The class was talking about how our pride makes it hard for us to receive correction humbly instead of getting angry. Someone making a comment said something to the affect of, “I don’t want to hear the conference talk.” MaryAnn I were talking about how we are less likely to have that reaction to a General Authority because we feel like they are someone who has the right and authority to correct (or command) us.

The nice thing about a command, when it is comes through proper authority, is it is really clear how to act. If you are asked to do something, you have to think about it and worry over a decision. When it is a command, you know exactly what to do and can move forward without waffling.

Alma 37:1-2

Alma 36

The lessons from Alma to Helaman:

Facts

• Keep the commandments and you will prosper (v.1)
•  Remember the Lord delivered your ancestors (v.2)
• Trust God, and He will support you in your trials and save  you at the last day (v.3)
• Some things are known only by the Spirit (v.4)
• I love Alma’s humility here, I don’t know this myself, but the Spirit told me
• It is not because of our worthiness that God loves us and saves us and reveals things to us. It is only because of His mercy and His love. (v.5)

Alma’s personal experience with those facts

• Then Alma uses his personal story to testify of the atonement, which is so powerful and teaches in a way that just listing truths cannot. (v.7-21)
• Being born of God. (v.23)
• He manifested to the people he had been born of God by laboring all of his days to bring people to God. Do I do that? (v.24)
• Blessings come from righteousness, and he has experienced those blessings: joy, support in trials, delivery, peace of knowing you will be with Him in glory. (v.25-28)

Reviews

Alma reviews  the Facts, or take home messages from the beginning at the end again (v.29-30)

There are not only beautiful truth’s in this lesson, but an amazing outline for effectively teaching principles of the gospel. This was an amazing chapter!

Alma 36

Alma 35:11-16

Before all of this happened, the Lamenites and Zoramites were enemies. How does mutual hatred overcome so much? I guess it is similar to Russia and the U.S. as allies in WWII. I think I assign more meaning to relationships sometimes, when they are really about accomplishing a common goal. I know God’s way is love, but it is also important to be wary and protect your responsibilities, be it your country, or in my case, my family.

When Alma saw that the people were beginning to be disobedient and hard-hearted back in the land of Nephi, the first thing he did was gather his children to teach them the gospel and bare testimony to them. He was the leader of the church, and responsible for all of the people, but his priority was still teaching the gospel to his family first. Sometimes it easy to make sure I take care of other responsibilities, to other people, but let things like family scripture study and family home evening slide. I need to be more deliberate in my mothering. I haven’t been putting though and planning in to teaching my children lately, but just kind of clawing my way through each moment as it comes. There are so many things taking up my thoughts and emotional energy with the move and how busy things have been, that I really need to refocus on my first priorities.

Alma 35:11-16

Alma 35:10-14

It stands out to me as significant the Ammonites moved out of their land so that the Nephite armies could move in to make war with the Lamenites. They really sacrificed to help people who needed it. And I love that the Nephites moved the Ammonites to a different land and defended them, supporting them in keeping their covenant not to fight. I can see people now, I can see myself now, saying that they were being overzealous and should defend themselves. This is ironic because one of the reasons we gave Helaman his name was that Helaman in the Book of Mormon was a prophet who helped people be covenant keepers. It makes me think about my grumpy attitude about things again. I want to be softer.

It is also important to me that Mormon says Alma and Ammon and their crew returned to Zarahemla having been instruments in the hand of God to bring people to repentance. It is funny how things are a matter of perspective. He didn’t say they had returned having started a war. And really, it wasn’t their choices that started the war, but sometimes it feels like I am responsible for other people’s choices in ways that are paralyzing. I need to be more faithful, less fearful, and really just focus on doing God’s work. His work will go forward, and cannot be stopped, even by tragedies and wars and anger. Nothing else really matters.

This also means that I should not stay up late working on things that keep my family from doing scriptures study and talking about their day and the gospel. Nothing is more important. 

Alma 35:10-14

Alma 35:8-9

What made the people of Ammon so generous and brave? When the leader of the Zoramites was threatening them for taking care of the people they had cast out (which, seriously, why did he care?) it would have been so easy for them to justify their family’s safety as a reason to not get involved. But they weren’t afraid. And they took care of them, and fed them and gave them homes. This is hard for me to do when I see want around me, because I am afraid. I am afraid of crazy people and afraid of not having enough for my family.

One time in Relief Society someone had a quote about never being worse off because of generosity. But then there is the idea of all things being done in order. Sometimes I don’t know how to reconcile it all. I guess it goes back to Elder Holland’s conference talk about praying to know, individually, what we are supposed to do. That is the advice I give others all the time, but somehow it is hard in my own life.

As I think about what made the Ammonites so brave and so generous, I think it was their familiarity with the atonement. They had sacrificed a lot to believe, but they really believed, and lived that hope and faith. You couldn’t be a fence sitter and kneel to be slaughtered rather than fight. I want that kind of faith, and I am afraid of letting go of my pride and doubt enough to have that kind of faith. But I know, it is the little choices, like reading scriptures and taking time to ponder these things that, slowly, over a long time, have changed me, and will keep changing me.

Alma 35:8-9