Alma 63

(November 4, 2014)

                The Lord has a use for each of us, and we don’t need to be the same ‘Stepford Mormon” in order to accomplish His works.  Even prophets of the Lord are dramatically different.  We can see that in our own day – President Monson and President Kimball (the current prophet and the first prophet I remember) were remarkably different men and yet were and are clearly prophets of God.

                We can also see that in the days of the Book of Mormon.  We can see that in what the people focus on and what their interests are.  Mormon is clearly a man of war, and that attracts his attention.  Alma fought himself, and so there is quite a bit of military history included.  Helaman was practically a general himself, and thus his writings include copious detail of military actions.  Then comes Shiblon, who had (to our knowledge) no real involvement in the wars.  Thus, while the records are in his possession, a great war takes place in which Moronihah defeats “a numerous army” of Lamanites – and we get a verse worth of coverage.

                But that is not a problem – the Lord wanted Alma when He chose Alma and He wanted Shiblon when He chose Shiblon.  Likewise, we each have interests and predilections.  The Lord will use those if we turn them over to us – they work to our destruction, however, if we hold them to ourselves.  Mormon’s interest in war allowed him to be a great general/prophet because he turned his warmaking skills over to the Lord as a sacrifice – but there were those in the Nephite armies, even at that time, who destroyed themselves because they sought war for their own purposes rather than for the Lord’s purposes.

                Whoever we are, the Lord has a use for us.  If we seek out ourselves, we will lose everything that we have.  But if we turn ourselves over to the Lord as we are, He can use us as we are, refine us and make us better, and save us.