Alma War Chapters - Maybe they are worth something after all! Part Two: Your Response is Your Choice

The first time I ever sat down to really read from the Book of Mormon was at a church campout years back. They challenged us to read Alma chapters 43 through 63. This covers a whole series of battles between two ancient American people. At the time, I was a high schooler and was just pleased that the scriptures actually had some cool action. In these chapters, I learned that there were some people who were both God fearing and still pretty cool. In high school, that was about all I needed to know.

Later, I started loving doctrine. Therefore, I started dreading the war chapters of Alma. I wanted to learn, not just be entertained. 

This time through the Book of Mormon, though, I'm realizing how silly I am.

In the next few posts, I want to discuss some real doctrines and lessons that I have learned by applying the stories of the Alma War Chapters into my life.

For Part One of this series, click here.

Your Response is Your Choice

After nearly 20 years of war, we can only assume everyone, Nephite and Lamanite alike, was sick of war. Can you really blame them? Sons and husbands had died in battle. Daughters and wives had been massacred at home. Lives had been altered, ruined, and ended. The fighting had gone further than just nation against nation; even at home, the kingmen and freemen were in a constant feud. Virtually everyone had been affected in one way or another.

This brings up one of the most powerful lessons of all the war chapters. While we may not choose what happens to us, we can certainly choose how to respond. 

"But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility" (Alma 62:41).

See that? Everyone was worn out. They were sick of putting up a fight. Everyone. The fight left people hardened. "If there really is a loving God out there, my son would be alive... My house would be standing... My life would be easier," they might have said. Have you not said the same thing? Have you never looked at your circumstances and been left remarkably disturbed by what you see? I would be lying if I said I had not.

People leave the church over this all the time. They abandon God and cannot accept the existence of a higher power who would allow such sorrow. They, as President Eyring said, create a pavilion, blocking themselves from feeling God's love.

Perhaps the wiser question we could ask, though, would be to say little more than, "Father, since you are out there, then why?"

This is the question the second group of people must have asked. These are they who were softened. They responded with the exact opposite reaction of the first group. They humbled themselves before God and
sought for understanding. As they went to Him, they were filled with hope.

Joseph Smith fits into this category. In Liberty Jail, he desperately wondered where God was, but never who He was, or the power He held (Doctrine and Covenants 121:1-6).
doubted

Nephi, when his father received revelation to flee Jerusalem, did not follow the manner of his brothers in murmuring, yet he did have "great desires to know of the mysteries of God" (1 Nephi 2:6). There were still mysteries. He didn't understand why his family had to leave anymore than his older brothers. But he didn't forget that God did know why.

This life is about experiences and about how we will respond to our experiences. No matter how long our wars, we always can look to our Father in Heaven. Remember that "godly sorrow" brings us to repent, to turn to God and seek His will; "the sorrow of the world" brings nothing but death (2 Corinthians 7:10).

How we choose to respond to the world around us carries enormous weight. Alma 62 teaches us that we always have the option to choose God.