Priorities

Priorities many times define our character, and determine the outcome of our actions. When our priorities are in line with those of God, everything falls into place. However, when we allow fundamental principles to fall off our list of priorities, we struggle to protect the few priorities that remain.  Moroni essentially lists the priorities of his people in chapter 46 verse 12 of Alma when he raises the title of liberty. “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children…” Notice that they are listed by importance, from first to last, meaning that each priority depends on the prior priority to be truly enjoyed. Raising children is aided by our wives, we will have a good relationship with our wives if we have peace. We may only have peace with freedom, true freedom is the result of religion, and religion is based on God. We know what happened with these people that fought to protect these rights, the were ultimately victorious.

Now let us see what happens after hundreds of years of falling into disbelief and losing the true order of priorities. In Mormon 2:23, Mormon urges his people to “fight for their wives, and their children, and their houses, and their homes.” Notice that they no longer fight for God or religion or freedom or peace. They have lost the most essential of priorities, and it is no wonder why they failed this time in defending themselves from the vengeful Lamanites.

We must today realize the importance of setting our priorities straight. We do not put God first because he is more important than our family, God Himself has commanded that we love, cherish and protect them. We put Him first for the sake of those that we love, for they will be protected from the evils of the world only when God is put first in our lives.

        Alma’s Counsel

As I studied Alma chapter 38 this week, I learned many valuable things that don’t appear on the surface of the pages, but come from in depth study. It is interesting how Alma counsels each of his sons differently, and the roles that they each play. Chapter 38 is only his counsel to Shiblon, but he also counsels his other two sons Helaman and Cortianton in other chapters. The Book of Mormon Central staff has observed that Alma possibly counseled his sons during the Passover, as part of an ancient tradition where fathers answer their son’s questions and give them counsel. Interestingly enough, as it is recorded in the scriptures, these father to son counsel meetings are often between three sons, and each son takes on a specific set of attributes. One son is always wise, one wicked, and the last is uninformed. It does not take long to label Helaman as the wise son, Corianton as the wicked and Shiblon the uninformed son. I feel as if it were for this reason that Alma’s counsel to Shiblon caught my attention. Now often are we to like Shiblon? Uninformed in the ways of God and needing instruction in order to understand and fulfill his will. The scriptures are amazing, as they relate to anyone, at any time and for any trial they are currently going through. We should ask ourselves: are like Helaman? If so, study Alma’s counsel given to him. Are we like Shiblon? Study the prophetic counsel given to him. Or are we like Coranton? The wicked son straying from the paths of God. If so, we should cherish and follow the revelation that God has given through Alma and to us in the form of holy scriptures. 

        Priorities

Priorities many times define our character, and determine the outcome of our actions. When our priorities are in line with those of God, everything falls into place. However, when we allow fundamental principles to fall off our list of priorities, we struggle to protect the few priorities that remain.  Moroni essentially lists the priorities of his people in chapter 46 verse 12 of Alma when he raises the title of liberty. “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children…” Notice that they are listed by importance, from first to last, meaning that each priority depends on the prior priority to be truly enjoyed. Raising children is aided by our wives, we will have a good relationship with our wives if we have peace. We may only have peace with freedom, true freedom is the result of religion, and religion is based on God. We know what happened with these people that fought to protect these rights, the were ultimately victorious.

Now let us see what happens after hundreds of years of falling into disbelief and losing the true order of priorities. In Mormon 2:23, Mormon urges his people to “fight for their wives, and their children, and their houses, and their homes.” Notice that they no longer fight for God or religion or freedom or peace. They have lost the most essential of priorities, and it is no wonder why they failed this time in defending themselves from the vengeful Lamanites.

We must today realize the importance of setting our priorities straight. We do not put God first because he is more important than our family, God Himself has commanded that we love, cherish and protect them. We put Him first for the sake of those that we love, for they will be protected from the evils of the world only when God is put first in our lives.

        Perfect Mitsakes

All of us make mistakes, and much can be learned from the mistakes that we see even the prophets of God commit. From the enormous amount of pressure that Mormon was under during the tedious process of compiling the Book of Mormon, he too made a few mistakes in his writing. One place that one of Mormon’s “hiccups” can be seen is in the 24^th chapter of Alma, verse 19. It is easy to imagine this prophet spending yet another day scribing into the metal plates the history of his ancestors and as he is writing, his subconscious takes over and he mixes up one word which he did not intend to put in that place. It is obvious that in verse 19 he intended to say that the Lamanites had buried their weapons of war, but instead writes “…they buried their weapons of peace,” Weapons of peace? That doesn’t sound right, and Mormon knew that and realized it the moment that he had wrongly written it down. We can learn a lot from how Mormon corrects himself. Instead of starting that plate over, or scratching it out, he simply continues forward and corrects himself by saying “…or they buried the weapons of war, for peace.” Should we not also correct our own mistakes in our lives? Instead of dwelling on the wrongs that we do, we should recognize and accept them, quickly correcting them and moving on. Also, it interesting to note that no even God found it necessary to demand that this mistake be taken out of the plates, neither through him or when Joseph translated them. This shows that God does not condemn our human faults, but simply wants us to learn from them and move on. 

The Miraculous “Revelation” of the Book of Mormon

The translation process of the Book of Mormon was nothing short of a miracle. The term “translation” can oft cause confusion among those that inquire about how Joseph did it. In actuality Joseph never said that he translated the words from the golden plates, but says that it was simply done by “the gift and power of God.” When the many first hand witnesses of the process are taken into account, we learn that Joseph rarely even looked at the plates, but actually read the words from either the seer stone, or the Urim and Thumim.  God says in 2 Nephi 27:20 about the translation of the Book of Mormon:” …I am able to do mine own work, wherefore thou shalt read the words which I shall give unto thee.” Joseph would often pick up the translation process after a break without even reviewing where they had left off, demonstrating that the real guiding authority behind the process was God, and that Joseph simply “read the words which [were given] unto [him].” Another interesting comment from the scribes is that when encountering a word in which the spelling was unknown, and upon writing it down wrongfully, Joseph would halt, and spell the word out for them without ever seeing that it was wrongfully spelled on the script. Truly This sacred book is the marvelous and predestined work of none other than God our Eternal Father. By making it a part of our lives and living by its precepts we will experience greater joy and a deeper sense of meaning throughout our lives.