Bulwarking from the Book of Mormon (and going to church)

Scriptural insight of the week: Alma Chapter 60. Moroni is a gung-ho for the Lord, righteous kind of guy. He’s standing up for what he believes in, doing his best in very trying circumstances to survive and to protect everybody around him. He's a role model.

Then he gets pretty indignant with somebody that’s on his team. (Because of the circumstances, he can’t see his teammates’ side of things.) He’s actually quite abrasive.

But I know what happens next. (I read it before. :) )

His teammate is able to reach deep into the wells of Christ’s charity and continue to hold out his hand in genuine respect and cooperation. They remain brothers and are able to work together and accomplish great good.

What a fortifying story for marriages and mission companionships and siblings and all the relationships we have. On this day, I hope to be Pahoran. I feel very touched by the whole thing.

Another thing that’s helping me this week, is a talk from Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. The speaker was talking about family scripture study. She said it’s like brushing your teeth. If you’re tired one night, so you go to bed without brushing your teeth, do you just throw in the towel and give up? Let your teeth rot in your head because you missed once? Of course not.

So. Just because we had pizza and cherry pie on Saturday for Michael’s birthday... and then on Sunday, somebody (who shall remain nameless :)) brought over several dozen delicious cookies left over from a Stake Employment Fireside...then the neighbors brought over leftover cake from a birthday party and it had a layer of pudding in it and thick wonderful frosting and I indulged in way too much of all that stuff, doesn’t mean I should not get up to go exercise.

NO. I will continue to brush my teeth. I will start again writing down what I eat and keeping the calories under 2000 a day. Sigh.

I guess the moral of these stories is that there really is a benefit to belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ—there is strength to be found in supping from modern-day (and ancient) scripture and hearing talks in the church meetings. He knew what kind of help we’d need to make it happily through this life and He planned for it. I’ll keep taking advantage of it.

(I liked what Paul (Elder Soderquist in the Philippines, not Paul the apostle in Philippi) said in one of his letters about him, as a missionary, just being there to “invite”. It’s what Christ does—loves and invites. It’s up to us (and investigators) to accept and act and take advantage of the resources He offers.)