Today I read Alma 49, where the Lamanites come against the Nephites for the first time after Amalickiah is their king. This chapter to me is interesting because it again shows the integrity of both the Nephites and the Lamanites. It's also a good reminder not to promise anything that you can't deliver. The Lamanite chief captains swore to attack the city of Noah no matter what and it led to their deaths and over a thousand of the Lamanite's deaths.
But the thing that strikes me about this chapter is the fact that the Lamanites had evolved to meet the changes in the Nephites. In the battle with Zerahemnah just a few years earlier, the Nephites had worn armor to protect themselves. Now, in this battle, the Lamanites are now wearing armor.
This is just like the adversary and his angels, when we resist a temptation, whatever it is, it comes back to attack us again later, even stronger than before. And if we are not ready for it, then we will fall. The Nephites in this chapter, if all they had to protect themselves were their armor, then they would have been slaughtered by the Lamanites because they would have been on equal ground and there were many, many more Lamanites than there were Nephites.
But Moroni understood this principle, that you have to always be preparing for the next attack. You can't stand still. Life in the Gospel, to me, is kind of like being on a moving sidewalk, like they have at the airport, but it's moving in the opposite direction that you are walking and trying to get to. If you stop moving, even for a second, you are going to lose ground. That is because in the gospel there is no standing still, there is no staying at the same level. You are either progressing or regressing.
I will give you an example from my own life. When I was in college, I was really bad about reading my scriptures. In fact, from the time I finished my mission, to the time I started really reading them again on a daily basis, I don't think I ever went so much as a month straight where I read my scriptures everyday. My spirituality started declining. I started watching rated R movies again, my language was not as clean as it should have been, I was moving backwards because I was not doing anything to keep myself moving forwards. The only thing I was doing on a consistent regular basis to keep myself going in the right direction was I was attending church every week.
Now, 10 years after my mission ended, instead of building on the wonderful base I made for myself on my mission with the scriptures, I am still working towards getting back to where I was. I think I am almost there again, at least where the scriptures are concerned. Fortunately I met a wonderful woman who would not allow me to continue with such vices as swearing and watching inappropriate media. As I slowly but surely walk against the grain that is the natural man, that sidewalk that moves in the wrong direction, I am almost back to that spot I allowed myself to leave 10 years ago. And once I get there, I have to go past it, or I will just fall, again.
If you all take nothing away from today's post than this, please learn this and learn it well: there is no standing still in the gospel. You are either progressing, or sliding back towards the natural man. I promise you that. It's not enough to just not sin. We have to actively take steps to get better and progress. It has to be a conscious choice. Think back to our moving sidewalk analogy, can you walk on it without paying attention to it? Maybe, but your likely hood of falling is significantly greater and if you fall on the morality sidewalk, you will travel a LONG way in the wrong direction before you can regain your feet.
And of course, since the sidewalk we are on is moving in the opposite direction of the way we want to go, we also have to contend with the other people on it, not just those moving the same direction we are who may be slower, but those who are only too happy to let the sidewalk take them where it will. If we stop to talk to those people....well you get the idea. We must be like Moroni and constantly defending ourselves and improving our protection against the adversary. As we do so, we will become better than we were today and slowly but surely accomplish our goal of eternal life! Until tomorrow.
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