3 Nephi 3 – Satan’s Letter to Youth (really everyone)

Giddianhi, the leader of the Gadianton robbers, is an evil man who has been deceived by the lies of Satan.  He sends a very bold letter to Lachoneus, the leader of the Nephites.  Giddianhi uses tools of Satan to try and overcome the Nephites.  What are these tools?

• Flattery – He tells Lachoneus how noble he is and how he admires him, etc. 
• Intimidation – He tries to frighten Lachoneous by telling him how strong they are and that nobody could stand against them.
• Lies – Attempts to create fear in the hearts of the Nephites by telling them lies about their cause, and trying to get them to doubt their cause. 
• Arrogance – He threatens them with destruction and claims there is no way they can stand against him and his people. 
• Boastful - What is it that Giddianhi wants?  He wants them to join his ranks and become acquainted with their secret works so they can be evil like him.  And if they do?  He will spare their lives.  If not, they will become extinct at the hands of the Gadianton robbers. 

Where do I get the idea that this is a letter to our youth today? It’s probably not my idea but rather from discussions had in some class, but I’ve written it in the margins of my Book of Mormon.  It’s not a hard leap, however. 

What is attracting our young people – and not so young people to turn to gangs or other destructive behavior?  Somehow, they are made to feel important in these groups.  They are flattered by someone and encouraged to join their group to belong.  Belonging is something we all want.  Right?  Why is it so much easier to “belong” to an evil, destructive lifestyle than to “belong” to Christ’s true church?  The natural man is an enemy to God, and somehow, not aspiring to achieve worthwhile, righteous goals that require focus and hard work, is the path of least resistance.  Standing up for what is right and good requires us to sometimes put ourselves in uncomfortable situations. 

Satan is the great deceiver.  He will do and say whatever it takes to get a person off the path of righteousness and into a world of bondage. 

Well, Lachoneous, the righteous leader of the Nephites had tools he used as well.  This was to fortify his people in righteousness. 

• Being fearless.  We know the end of this conflict, and there is no need to fear.  Faith and fear cannot coexist.  The only thing we don’t know about this conflict is what side we will be on.
• Lachoneous sent a proclamation to the people to pray.  This was not a secret request, but rather a public proclamation.
• Lachoneous caused that there should be fortifications built that would be exceedingly great.  What are those fortifications today?  They are the Sunday School answers that have stood the test of time, i.e. personal prayer and scripture study, family prayer and scripture study, attending the temple, Family Home Evening and righteous parents. 
• They followed their prophet, Lachoneous.  This is a protection in our age as well.  As I’ve been given an up-close and personal look into the destruction of what I considered a very righteous person, I’ve discovered all these tools were being ignored, thus leaving this person vulnerable to Satan’s lies.  It began with a grudge against a prophet of the Lord for 40+ years!  This left a chink in his armor that when he started picking, left him open for what appeared from the outside, a quick fall.  Since it’s really not mine to talk about, I will stop there.  It is a pattern repeated by nearly all who falter and fall away from God’s true church here on earth.  Seeing this has reinforced me in my efforts to use the tools the Lord has given us to keep myself and my family strong against the tools of Satan, which are all lies.

3 Nephi 1 – Our Savior, Jesus Christ, is Born!

Four years had passed since Samuel had prophesied that Christ would be born and that the sun would go down yet it would stay light as day.  This happened as prophesied, yet there were still unbelievers.  I find this incredible!  How could you possibly witness such a phenomenon and not put the pieces together?

Another thing that happened some time after this amazing event was that both the Nephites and the Lamanites had dissenters who left to become Gadianton robbers.  I’ve always paralleled these pesky people as gangs in our day.  What caused them to defect?  They saw the same things as the believers. Of course, we know Satan tells lies, and if we subject ourselves to listening to those lies, we will be deceived.  This is exactly what happened.  And this is what is happening in our day.

We have some very smart people in our midst today who are beginning to believe lies.  Some believe life is supposed to be easy; that they came here to have a happy life without struggling.  I’m not certain where that belief could possibly come from.  Some believe that their relationships are supposed to be perfect without putting in the time and effort.  Again, that seems ridiculous to me.  We need to invest in those things that are of an eternal nature, i.e. our families! 

We just finished with a most inspiring Stake Conference.  The theme was to Stay on the Covenant Path.  It’s not a difficult idea.  We keep those covenants we have made; we prepare to make and keep those covenants we have not yet made.  It begins with the 4^th Article of Faith, i.e. faith, repentance, baptism by immersion, and receiving the Holy Ghost.  Then we renew that covenant of baptism weekly as we worthily partake of the sacrament.  So far, that’s not a hard path.  In doing these things, we REMEMBER our covenants and we strive to keep them.  We will make mistakes.  The Lord knew this and he gave us a Savior who has paid for our mistakes so that we can repent and continue moving forward on this path.

We have tools to help us stay strong.  One is service to our fellow men.  We are beckoned to do Family History so we can do temple work for those who did not have that blessing in life.  So many of our young people are embracing this tool.  They have turned their hearts to their Fathers and seek names to take to the temple and baptize so that their parents who have made covenants in the temple can then finish the temple covenants. 

These are all tools to keep us anxiously engaged in a righteous cause.  I truthfully wonder what I would do with my life if I did not have the gospel in it.  Would I even feel compelled to get up in the morning?  My scriptures call me first thing in the morning.  I’m on the lookout daily for people I can help along the way.  I’m always feeling the need to attend the temple.  That’s one thing I came away feeling I need to increase.  I use to attend weekly.  It’s been harder since Clyde has retired and we’re busier with the Clinic, but this is only an excuse. 

Yes, staying on the covenant path may be a challenge, but we have so much to help us. 

Helaman 16 – Samuel the Lamanite Finishes His Message

One of the more fascinating things to me in life is that a group of people can be exposed to the same truth and some will embrace that truth while others will reject it.  I know this is what agency is all about, and I accept that.  It doesn’t make it any less painful when you’ve raised five children and only two have embraced the truth. 

When those who believed acknowledged that they did so, they “. . . went forth and sought for Nephi. . .”  Why Nephi?  They went to Nephi because he was a prophet of the Lord.  They knew he held the keys and the Spirit must have testified this truth to them.  When they found him, they “. . . confessed unto him their sins and denied not, desiring that they might be baptized unto the Lord.”  They wanted to belong to God’s true church. 

What does it mean to “deny not”?  I’ve apparently asked myself this question before because I wrote a note from Millet & McConkie’s Book of Mormon Commentary.  This phrase means: “Candid (truthful and straightforward; frank), in confession . . . It is to be open, pliable to counsel, directions and promptings of the Spirit.”  In other words, it means to not be prideful.

We’ve watched our children closely and have a good relationship with them.  However, there are traits with each of them that are easy to see from our perspective.  “Boast(ing) in their own strength” Mosiah 11:19 is just one example in the Book of Mormon.  There are several examples. Mormon 3:9 is another good one.  They don’t want to hear truth.  Whenever things of the gospel are subject, disrupt, or leave or tune out completely.  There is no interest. 

I just read President Benson’s timeless talk on pride to identify other characteristics.  Ah!  This really is a classic talk.  There isn’t one paragraph that isn’t valuable.  I recommend it as a good review on the topic of pride.  Go to https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/beware-of-pride?lang=eng

Here are just a few points he made. 

Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing.

The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us.

Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God’s. When we direct our pride toward God, it is in the spirit of “my will and not thine be done.” As Paul said, they “seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” (Philip. 2:21.)

Our will in competition to God’s will allows desires, appetites, and passions to go unbridled. (See Alma 38:12; 3 Ne. 12:30.)

The proud cannot accept the authority of God giving direction to their lives. (See Hel. 12:6.) They pit their perceptions of truth against God’s great knowledge, their abilities versus God’s priesthood power, their accomplishments against His mighty works.

That’s a pretty good synopsis of the attitudes we deal with in those of our children who have turned their backs on truth.  There is serious enmity toward God.  God “caused” the pain one daughter has gone through.  Really, she refuses to even believe he exists or he would not have allowed her to be so abused.  Really?  How does that wash given his most favored son, even Jesus Christ, was allowed to suffer the most horrible of deaths – and that wasn’t even the worst of his suffering.  He experienced in a way we will never comprehend, the pains, sorrows, disappointments, and emotions every one of us has and will ever suffer.  So that one doesn’t work in my book at all. 

Pride is competitive in nature.  There is a serious contention of who can do what better.  We joke about it being a girl thing, but it is really a pride thing.  When you pit that competitive nature with God’s will, there is no moral compass.  We’ve seen it, and it is heartbreaking to watch.

Pride will not allow a person to be dictated to by God’s will.  They would rather let the Devil work them into a dark abyss where choices are gone, hearts are aching and broken and where children become a burden to care for.  And that’s easier? 

I don’t know where I’m going with this.  Perhaps I need to go back to the scripture that caused me to start writing in the first place.  Many heard the words of Samuel the Lamanite.  Some believed; some did not.  And that is what it’s like to be a parent.  Some believe; some do not.  We love each one of them and pray they will have the opportunities, friends, teachers, and experiences that will cause them to remember the things they were taught in their youth, and seek for the warmth and light of the gospel.  We expose them to our lives as best we can and pray there will be angels – earthly and not of this earth – who will be able to break through that prideful crust that keeps them from enjoying the fruits of the gospel.

Helaman 15 – Return Again

This chapter is all about dwindling and returning.  Samuel, the Lamanite, is delivering some pretty tough prophecies.  How does what he says apply to us today? 

Our children were taught the gospel.  They had the agency to make their own decisions and some of them have put themselves in jeopardy of receiving Heavenly Father’s harshest consequences – v17 “If they will not repent, and observe to do my will, I will utterly destroy them, saith the Lord, because of their unbelief notwithstanding the many mighty works which I hae done among them; and as surely as the Lord liveth shall these things be, saith the Lord.”

My children have seen mighty works.  Did they recognize them as mighty?  I don’t know.  In today’s world, everything is upside down.  There is so much confusion and commotion that it’s hard to know what people see, feel and believe.  I am somewhat comforted in V16 where it says “. . . in the day of my wisdom they shall return again unto me, saith the Lord.”  Will they return?  Will they be drawn toward the light as I was? 

I feel there is only one way that can happen and that is if they are somehow exposed to the Book of Mormon again and remember the things they were taught when they were young.  Verses 7-8 make it quite clear: “And behold, ye do know of yourselves, for ye have witnessed it, that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them.  V8 Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free.”

Herein lies the key to return – Read the Scriptures!!!!  I don’t know that there was anymore hope for me by my parents than I have for them.  What made me turn to the scriptures?  It was friends who talked about the gospel opening and then referred me to passages in the scriptures to support their thoughts.  I gradually did turn to the scriptures and very gradually, I began to have a thirst for knowledge.