I love verse 2. I want to talk to my kids about this,
remaining faithful to the testimonies they are building now. Although I know I
need to do more to help with that, especially family scripture study. In
October 2014 Richard G. Scott gave a conference
talk on priorities, and this has always stuck with me:
“Don’t yield to Satan’s lie that you don’t have time to
study the scriptures. Choose to take time to study them. Feasting on the word
of God each day is more important than sleep, school, work, television shows,
video games, or social media. You may need to reorganize your priorities to
provide time for the study of the word of God. If so, do it!”
It’s the more important than sleep that jumped out at me at
the time, and continues to come back to me. That is always why we don’t read
scriptures, because bedtime gets so late. But it is more important than sleep,
even school. I have to do better to help them strengthen their testimonies so
they will have the grit, and hopefully desire, to really endure to the end.
That is always the hard part.
Shiblon was able to bare his difficult trials with patience
because the Lord was with him. And the Lord was with him because of his faith
and obedience. Patience is what I desperately need all the time, so how can I
be more obedient? I think reading scriptures THREE DAYS IN A ROW is a good
start to repenting and be more obedient. And I am trying to pray all day, and
keep the Lord in my thoughts and always remember Him. And I praying for
patience. Now I just need to practice patience waiting to change my heart I
suppose.
And I think verse 5 is the answer to my fear and anxiety all
the time. I need to be more diligent in putting my trust in God and not being
afraid. Sometimes everything that could go wrong in a day feels like the end of
the world. But there is nothing that God is not greater than. This story really
helped me to see that in a powerful way the other day:
We worry about things from a worldly perspective, but God
has a vast eternal perspective as he does his work. I can stop fearing and
trust Him as I move forward. All the things that seem so big and aren’t, and
even the things that really are big and huge, will all be okay when swallowed
up in His infinite wisdom and goodness. There is nothing that He is not bigger
than.
I love that in verse 6, Alma is
careful to deflect the glory back to God. I tend to feel really excited when I
have insights into the world, and feel intellectually superior. But it is never
me, it is always by revelation of the mind of God. I don’t know these things of
myself, only by the power of the Holy Ghost, and the great mercy of God in
allowing me to repent and change course in my life.
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