Alma 25-26

(April 6, 2013)
I had a number of thoughts as I read through these two chapters.  The first thought that immediately struck me was on the Lamanites complete abdication of personal responsibility.  They had just spent days slaughtering their brothers and sisters – people who took no efforts to protect themselves – and they come out of that thinking how bad the Nephites are.  Really?

That ability to deceive ourselves as to our own responsibilities is a dangerous trait.  What’s more, it is a universal one.  As I talk about above, I even managed to engage in such self-deception while thinking about the process of this self-deception.  Had it not been for the context, I doubt I would have even noticed that I had done so.

The second thought that I had was in the believers’ willingness to obey a dead law.  They fully understood that salvation did not come through the Law of Moses, and yet they were diligent in following this law.  Why?  Because they understood the power of ritual and obedience to bring about conversion.  Put another way, they knew that action followed belief but so too did belief follow action.  It puts the lie to those who say that, because of their faith or something else, they have no need to follow the commandments.

The third thought was on boasting in the Lord.  This is something that I think that I need to do more often.  Not just boasting in Him, but understanding Him and my relationship to Him.  I have no confidence right now in most areas of my life, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  There is no reason why my confidence cannot and should not come from Him.

Finally, Ammon’s question of why they were spared from eternal damnation is a profound one and one that I have struggled with.  Why me?  Why was I born into a good family and born into the Gospel?  Why, for example, was Mother Teresa born Catholic (clearly a wonderful and Christ-like person) and I was born into the Church?  There is an overarching sense that I haven’t earned what I have received in life (a potential source of my lack of confidence) – I was raised in a Church that I don’t know if I could have found on my own, I am living in a wonderful house that I don’t know why I have and what I did to earn it (other than build at the perfect time), I have great kids that owe most of their success to the efforts of their mother (although we have problems, I have never doubted her ability and determination to be an excellent mother – she is one of the best).  So, I am left to wonder why me?