I’m often intrigued by Amulek, who was the man who rescued
Alma when he came into the land of Ammonihah.
He admits he is not a real righteous person, yet an angel
speaks to him. How can that be? Maybe he was better than he supposed?
The examination given by Zeezrom gives a very thorough
account of how much Amulek had learned in a very short period of time. I draw a comparison to my own “learning” and
I don’t think it was that fast. However,
I felt the Spirit almost instantly as I started studying the scriptures,
praying for guidance, and keeping the commandments. Maybe if I had been called upon to defend my
position in a court of law, I might have been assisted by the Spirit to give
profound answers, as was Amulek. I know
that when I bore testimony of truths I had learned, I was guided by the Spirit
in what I said – which is really why I enjoyed bearing testimony so much (and
still do). It would seem that the Spirit
puts the words in our mouths and as we say them, the Spirit testifies to us
that what we are saying is truth.
I know this is what happened to me just this week as I was
talking with my daughter about the importance of temple worship. For some reason, her husband has not felt the
need to return to the temple often, as we have been instructed. He is very knowledgeable in the gospel, and
therefore feels he is exempt from this very thing that would protect his
family. In frustration, I felt myself
slip into teaching mode and bore my testimony of the things we learn in the
temple such as parenting skills, relationship skills, and I could probably go
on, but that is not the purpose in this post.
By the time I finished on the topic, I was weak, which is an indication
of the Spirit having spoken through me.
It is my unique “sign”.
I suspect strongly this is what happened to Amulek. As he opened himself up to the Spirit, he was
given the words to say. The more he
spoke, the more the Spirit gave him to say.
This is probably why we are told to just open our mouths as we speak to
strangers on the street. Ask them if
they are LDS, and see where the conversation leads. I’m still reticent to do that, but I talked
with a couple yesterday who have turned that into a daily experience and have
had some amazing things happen as a result.
We must learn to open our mouths and let the Spirit guide us
as we teach our children, go about our daily tasks, and live the lives we have
been sent here to live (2 Nephi 25:26). I’m
certain as we do this, we will be blessed.
I just read the last April talk by Linda K. Burton and she bore strong
testimony on that very thing. As they
were raising their children they were extremely overwhelmed and took it to the
Lord. The Spirit let them know there
were three things that were truly important.
Everything else was secondary.
Those three things were: Daily
scriptures, daily prayer and weekly FHE.
We can do that. In so doing, we
will then be guided by the Spirit that the things we teach will be of Christ,
His mission and our responsibilities as covenant people.
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