Lies, lies, lies!

Alma 47 – Amalickiah and his amazing evil ways makes his way from a leader of a few dissenters to the king of the Lamanites.  How?  Lies, lies, lies!  Of interest to me is verse 47 where it says the dissenters (i.e. Amalikiah) received the same instruction and information as the Nephites with regards to the Lord, yet “it is strange to relate” (I love that phrase), it didn’t take long before the dissenters from righteous upbringing were “more hardened, and impenitent, and more wild, wicked and ferocious than the Lamanites . . . entirely forgetting the Lord their God.

Listen up you little dissenters.  (Like I don’t think anyone reads this, but certainly not dissenters.)   Do you really want to be thought of as “hard”?  (Webster: to assume an appearance of harshness or severity.)  Is impenitent appealing?  (Webster: A person who will not repent when they do something wrong.)  How about wild?  (Webster:  Living in a state of nature and not ordinarily tame or domesticated.  Or Uncontrolled, uncivilized .)  Wicked?  Morally very bad; evil.  Ferocious?  (Webster: Unrestrained violence or brutality.)

This is a very frightening commentary for a parent of children who seem to turn their hearts away from the Lord and embrace worldly behavior.  (I can’t bring myself to say evil, though we all know that’s what it is.)

What is the solution?  What recourse does a parent have?  The only answer I can come up with is prayer, temple attendance (we can’t have too many people assisting on the other side), and a righteous example.  (I will always remember the feeling I had when I went to my parents’ home for a couple of days.  I was overcome by the sense of peace that existed in their home.  Just sitting in the evening with everyone doing their own “project” - dad reading the paper, mom working in the kitchen, Paul doing his thing - for the evening was overwhelmingly appealing to me. I wanted it in my life again more than anything.)  It worked for me.  It worked for my oldest daughter who had similar experiences.  Add to my list of things I can do:  “have faith”.  It will continue to work.