You Only Have Two Hands

In Alma 39, Alma is talking to his son Corianton about many different things, repentance and self-mastery being among them.  He tells his son to "refrain from your iniquities" and advises him to return to those whose hearts he has lead away and "acknowledge your faults and that wrong which ye have done."  Then in verse 14 he says:

"Seek not after riches nor the vain things of this world; for behold, you cannot carry them with you."

I have always thought of advice like that as referring to death and "carrying" things into the afterlife.  Perhaps that is what Alma meant, but when I read that scripture, I was picturing Corianton going among his fellow man, trying to right wrongs and accomplish good.  Because of that, I saw this verse differently this time.  As I thought about it, a picture of Isaac came into my mind.  You see, my son, Isaac, often carries around beads, or some little toy to play with as he goes throughout his day.  When I ask him to do something, he tries to complete the task with said object still in his hand.

So this morning while pondering this scripture, I can see Isaac in my mind's eye trying to clean up the living room thus encumbered.  I can see how ineffectual he is.  I can see how much more he would accomplish if he would set down that vain, or in other words, unimportant thing.  If he would put it aside, then the goal he is working toward would be accomplished much more quickly and with less frustration on his part.

I wonder if we could take Alma's advice as being like that which I say often to my kids--"You only have two hands.  You don't need that __________ so put it down and get on with life." I say it often enough that I heard Isaac tell his brother the other day to "get on with life!"

I know I can only do so much with my "two hands" of time and energy.  Perhaps I need to look at what I am carrying with me that is stopping me from getting on with my life as I want to live it each day.  If I can do that, if I can put down that which is not important, then I can work more effectively towards my goal of becoming like my Savior with a little less frustration on my part.

Shiblon

In Alma 38, Alma the Younger is speaking to his son Shiblon.

Shiblon is your typical middle child.  He gets one chapter while his older brother, Helaman, and his younger, rebellious brother, Corianton, get multiple chapters of advice from their father.  I'm just kidding.  As a middle child, I had to throw that in.  But seriously, Shiblon is a faithful man, who was a great help to his father during their mission to the Zoramites.  He will not take his father's place in keeping the sacred records as Helaman will, nor does he need remonstrating and deep teaching as Corianton, who became "distracted" by the harlot Isabel during the afore mentioned mission.  It says in verse 10 that Shiblon is a teacher of the word, and Alma hopes that he continues teaching in diligence and temperance.

There are many little gems in this short chapter, but today the one that jumps out at me is Alma's advice in verse 12:

"Use boldness, but not overbearance; and also see that ye bridle all your passions that ye may be filled with love; see that ye refrain from idleness."

All of that advice is sound, but the interesting one to me is "bridle all your passions that ye may be filled with love."  I have been thinking lately about something similar, but switched around.  I have been thinking that maybe if I have love--more specifically--charity, then perhaps that will help me to bridle my passions.  Perhaps if love is the main thing I concentrate on during my interactions with others, anger won't get the better of me quite so often.  Spikes of frustration as the results of others actions will be smoothed and bothersome occurrences will be put in their proper place.  Petty judgments laid on others around me will be shoved aside as I strive to view them as my Savior sees them.  I suppose this may be an instance much like the chicken and the egg, but one thing is for sure:  bridling your passions has something to do with love, no matter which one comes first.

Guidance

Through new callings and new lessons to study, along with the church handbook, I have let my Book of Mormon study become something that I only do during family scripture study, but that is not how I want it.  I know I started this blog so that I could share my thought as many in the ward studied along with me.  It seems that purpose went by the wayside long ago.  But I do so love my personal reflection time with the Book of Mormon that I am renewing my vigor to continue this blog.  It does me a lot of good to have to distill my scripture journal ramblings into something cohesive and better understood by others.  So I hope that no matter what book of scripture you are currently studying, you might gain something from reading what I record as I continue Learning From The Book of Mormon.

This morning I was pondering Alma 37.  This chapter contains an analogy from Alma that has long been one of my favorites.  In verse 38, Alma begins this analogy by reminding his son Helaman about the unusual compass given to Lehi and his family as they traveled in the wilderness.  The Liahona worked according to their faith in God.  If they were being faithful, it guided them well; but if they grew lax, they became lost and began wondering in the wilderness making no progress on their journey.  In forgetting to exercise their diligence they also suffered hunger and thirst because the Liahona was what kept them on the right course to aid them in going through the best hunting grounds and helped them find water.  It was the "hunger and thirst" that caught my attention this time.  I have never noticed it before.

Alma continues on to compare Lehi's journey through the wilderness with us in this life.  It is so true.  I know I am here in this world (the wilderness), but am I progressing?  Or am I simply wondering around, hungry and thirsty when there is plenty of meat and water to be had if I would just look to the Lord for guidance?  I know there is a difference between living my life as a good person out of habits that I have formed and living my life trusting in the Lord each day to guide me to that meat and water that will enliven my soul and keep me progressing on the path back to Him.

Alma 37:46:  "O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us.  The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever."

I know sometimes my good habits sustain me, and yet, so often, they are not enough.

Repentance Equals Joy

In Alma 36, Alma is talking to his son Helaman about his conversion--the depths of his sorrow and pain juxtaposed with the great joy and light he felt when he experienced the effects of Jesus Christ's Atonement.  He testifies of its power to heal as his sins were forgiven and washed away.  Then, in verse 24, he says:

"Yea and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy to which I did taste; that they might also be born of God and be filled with the Holy Ghost."
 

This scripture gives me a much needed shift in my attitude towards missionary work.  It declares that preaching repentance is about wanting those around you to experience joy.

I have always thought missionary work to be good, but I have felt that it is more about giving knowledge.  The transfer of knowledge takes time, and I feel the potential for me to speak too much or to come across as high and mighty is definitely there.  But, if I simply bear my testimony of Jesus Christ and the joy that comes from the Atonement through my deeds as well as my words perhaps I would not overwhelm them or me.

When I was younger, I viewed any reference to repentance as reprimand.  I felt the goal was to live life so that one didn't need to do that thing that sinners have to do...repent.  As I have experienced more of life and repentance myself, I can say along with Alma that repentance equals joy.

How I Know

My last post about Alma and all things testifying of God contained a second part to it when I wrote it in my scripture journal.  It was one of those things that I felt was more of a private thing and not meant for a blog, but I feel now that I should share it.

I wrote:

Even those who walked by Jesus' side needed the Holy Ghost as a testimony.  A personal manifestation of the Spirit is so essential to our faith.

At times, I have wondered if it was not just me, in my own mind and with my own emotions, creating that warm feeling in my chest that I have for years recognized as the Spirit.  It is a feeling of an expanding heart.  (Perhaps that is what Dr. Seuss was trying to describe in the final pages of the Grinch That Stole Christmas.  "The Grinch's small heart grew threw sizes that day" could have read--the Grinch gained a testimony of Jesus Christ that day.)

I have an experience that I don't quite know how to write about.  Words seem to lend no real explanation to it but I'll try to pin it down with words, for my mind might someday let it slip away, and I don't want it to slip away.

There was one particular morning about a year ago when I was very much wondering if I created these swelling-in-my-chest/burning-in-my-bosom answers to prayers.  Logically, I knew that when I thought about my experience with getting answers to my prayers that it simply couldn't be me because I have been guided too often to places I NEVER would have thought to go and learned things I never in a million years could have figured out on my own.  In other words, I had experience as my proof that these feelings were coming from the Lord through the Holy Ghost and yet...on this particular morning my niggling doubts about answers to prayers were gaining strength.  I wasn't just sort of wondering, I was doubting.

As I knelt to be the voice of our family prayer that morning, I sought the Spirit to help me know who needed special prayers that day but instead of feeling the Spirit of prayer, a sudden blackness seemed to have landed inside my chest.  My heart felt very heavy, and the more I willed my heart to swell and feel peace or light, the more it felt cold and hard.  I tried to shove the feeling aside and reach for guidance, but the blackness just seemed to deepen.

I stopped for just a moment, but then continued, spouting some platitudes in my prayer so as not to let my children know of the distress I was feeling.  I finished the prayer, worried that I had offended God with my doubting heart and that light would not return to me easily.  I figured I had some repenting to do and felt very anxious to do whatever it was I needed to so that I could feel the Spirit again.  Almost instantly, as I thought these things, my heart began to swell with light.  I recognized immediately that the blackness had been an answer to my unspoken prayer about my doubts.  While the blackness had taken over my heart, I had reached inside myself and tried to rid myself of it.  I had breathed deeply trying to diffuse it, but I could not accomplish it.  I knew I had been shown that the feelings given my by the Spirit were not created by me.

Now, if ever a doubt tries to creep into my mind, I think of that morning and the empty blackness I felt compared to the light, peaceful feeling I was given after and that memory chases my doubts away.

Alma 30--All Things Testify

Alma 30 is the chapter that tells us about Korihor.  Korihor went about the land preaching that there is no God and there will be no Christ.  He eventually ends up in front of Alma and I love the approach Alma takes to this.  In Alma 30:40-41 he says:

"And now what evidence have ye that there is no God, or that Christ cometh not?  I say unto you that ye have none, save it be your word only.  But, behold, I have all things as a testimony that these things are true and ye also have all these things as a testimony unto you that they are true..."

He goes onto say that the testimony of their brethren and the Holy Prophets, the scriptures, the earth, and the planets, and the motion of the earth and planets "do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." (v.44)

I love it especially because I think of the naysayers of today and how they are still using the same argument that Satan gave to Korihor.  Whenever I have heard these arguments in the past--that there is no tangible proof there is a God--I have felt on the defensive.  I look around myself and come up without something to point to.  But, truly, it is all around us.  Alma is right.  The testimony of God is everywhere and yet Alma's point did not hold much weight with Korihor, and it doesn't hold much weight today with those who don't want to see.  It seems that there is no other way to gain a real testimony but by the power of the Holy Ghost.

A Holy Calling

I have been thinking about my calling in the church recently and praying about it.  I am in the Relief Society presidency right now and leadership callings are always hard for me.  I have had another one of those experiences with praying and reading my scriptures that I so often get, but that never cease to amaze me.

I had been pondering my calling for some time when in the course of my regular scripture study I read Alma 29.  In this chapter Alma is talking about the missionary efforts put forth by himself and the sons of Mosiah.  Actually, by this time in the chapter he is rejoicing in the opportunity they have had to be instruments in the hands of God.  In and among the wonderful verses of this chapter he says something simple that caught my eye and got me thinking...and praying...and pondering.  For a few days it was in the back of my mind.  In Alma 29:13 he says:  "...God hath called me by a holy calling..."

Yep--that is the simple phrase my mind focused on.  I underlined "a holy calling" and stalled in my scripture study for a while.  In trying to record my impressions and thoughts, I wrote this in my scripture journal:

"I feel as though a calling is less about 'you are meant to be this' as it is about 'I (Heavenly Father) will help you do this!'  A holy calling is one in which the fulfillment of will be aided by divine help and guidance.  Anyone who is willing to be humble and learn will serve well...they will be able to do it.  Perhaps the calling by prophecy [that we read about in the fifth Article of Faith] is less about 'the perfect person for the job' and more about who is ready for that learning experience in their lives.  As we strive to serve others in whatever capacity our callings require, Heavenly Father helps us.  We gain from this a testimony of the reality of our Father in Heaven and can see His loving concern for us and all his children."