Alma 61-62

(May 5, 2015)

                A recurring theme in the Book of Mormon is that external conflict often serves to merely illuminate or reveal internal weaknesses.  But for these internal weaknesses, the external pressures would not have the capacity to destroy the Nephites.  And the solution to the problem is very often dealing with the internal matters and allowing the external matters to resolve themselves.

                There is, once again, a large amount of truth to this in our own lives.  Oftentimes the external struggles that do so much to tear our lives apart (and I am in the midst of just such a struggle now) are in fact blessings because they illuminate the internal weaknesses that the external struggles are able to capitalize on.  And, like in the Book of Mormon, our solution is not to attempt to deal with external matters outside of our control but to focus on the internal matters that are within our control (with the help of Grace, of course).