Pefectly Honest and Upright

Today I read Alma 27. This chapter is all about the people of Ammon and their flight from the Amalakites to the Nephites. It also talks about the character of the people of Ammon which has already been talked about a little bit in a previous post.

A phrase describing the people of Ammon stood out to me in this chapter. It described them as being perfectly honest and upright. I can see how some people would think that this phrase is a little obscure, but to me I picture a people who personify the 2 greatest commandments: to love the Lord they God, and to love they neighbor as thyself.

I have always found it interesting that the second great commandment is not to love our neighbor, but rather to love him as we love ourselves. We are being commanded to love ourselves in this chapter, which I think many people have no problem with, in fact it seems most people have a problem with loving themselves too much, known as pride.

So what does it mean to love our neighbor as yourself? Well, let's think about the things we do for ourselves, we would never let ourselves go hungry, or go without clothing or other necessities. We would never call ourselves names, or mock ourselves for our imperfections, we would never cast ourselves out into the cold or shun ourselves because we were different. I realize there are in fact people who would do such things to themselves, but I think that is a learned behavior and another form of pride. The average person would not do the things that I have listed above.

Therefore, it stands to reason that if we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, we should not do those things to our neighbors either. When i picture the people of Ammon, that is in fact what I picture. I picture a man returning from the fields, tired and worn out. As he is walking home, he sees someone by the side of the road begging for food and stops and helps him to his feet, brings him home and sits him in his own chair and helps him to eat his fill before even taking a bite himself. I picture this man giving the other his best set of clothes and giving him a bed to sleep in for the night. I picture a people that unfriendliness is a word that holds no meaning and is a foreign concept for them.

Moses 7:18 defines Zion as having one heart and one mind, with no poor among them. With this in mind, we learn that Zion is not a physical place, although there is a spot picked out for the city of Zion, but Zion is rather a society, a state of being. The people of Ammon were a Zion society I think. That is what it means to be perfectly honest and upright. I do not picture someone who is perfectly honest as someone who is cruel with their words and in telling the truth, but rather someone who goodness just flows from. Someone that you know there is more to them than what you can see and you desire to know what it is. Someone that even if they were so inclined, they could not hide the truth of who they were. Someone that let's their light shine forth. They were the kind of person I try to be every day.

Each of us has it in us to be like this. It is hard and requires a lot of work. But we get there bit by bit, little by little, with God's help. Have you ever noticed that no prophet in the Book of Mormon ever prays to have a trial taken away? They always pray to have strength to endure it well, or to make it through the trial. I noticed that fact when I was a teenager, about 15 years ago actually, and since that time I too have tried to never ask that a trial be taken from me, but rather that I may be strengthened to endure it well. And I believe it is just this mentality that has helped me through those rough times. We have to go through them if we are to grow, but we don't have to grow through them alone. We have the best help imaginable and all we have to do is ask for it, He will never turn us away. And with His help, we can accomplish anything. Until tomorrow.