Saved by the Hand of God

Today I read Alma 57, which is a continuation of the letter Helaman wrote to Moroni detailing their trials in the land during this time of war. I am always struck when I read this chapter by the compassion of the Nephites towards the Lamanites. The Nephites had taken so many prisoners that they really could not afford to keep them any longer but instead of putting them to death they instead did their best to keep them alive.

This chapter also shows God's love for the Nephites and how He can save them by His miraculous power. In this chapter, the Stripling Warriors are joined by another 60 of the sons of the people of Ammon and based on the description, they fought an even worse battle than the previous one and they are all again spared. Rightly so, Helaman attributes this to the hand of God.

However, even more than just the sons of Helaman, the Lord prepared a way for the Nephites to be rid of their prisoners and to save them from the Lamanites who were about to overrun them. The Lamanite prisoners upon hearing of the impending Lamanite attack rushed their captors and the majority of them were slain. And the Nephite guards were sufficient in number to repel the Lamanite assault on the city. Some people might call that a coincidence. I call it divine providence.

I stopped believing in coincidence on my mission. Call them what you will, a coincidence, a twist of fate, or any other number of names, I firmly believe everything happens for a reason. If something bad happens to us, I really do believe it is because we have something to learn from it. Take for example my not getting the job with the NSA, which I REALLY wanted. I was really bummed and did not know what to do with myself. However, 3 years later, I met my wife while I was living in Kentucky. If I had gotten the job with the NSA, I would have moved to Baltimore, MD and would not have met my wife.

I could cite countless other examples where what I once thought were really bad things happening to me in my life, turned out to be blessings in disguise. But I will just leave you with this last one. I had always wanted kids as soon as I was married. However, because of reasons I won't go into here, my wife and I were forced to wait 2 years to start our family expansion project. However, I look at my friends who started having kids the same year they were married and I look at how hard they struggle to just get along and I think back to my first year of marriage and how truly hard it was to get along with my wife that first year. And then I think about how easy it is to get along with her now and I truly do thank my Heavenly Father for His help in making us wait to have children.

We don't always see Heavenly Father's reasoning when He does things for and to us, but I promise you that it is there. If we will take a step back and let Him take the drivers seat in our life, you will never be sorry you did. That I promise you. Until tomorrow.