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.