The Weakness of Men

Today I read Ether 7 a continuation of the story of the Jaredites. As I read the story of the Jaredites I can't help but wonder at the folly of men and their desire for power. In this chapter alone we read of several men who desired power above all others, so much so that they were willing to start wars and people died to grant them their desires.

When I think about those things, I often wonder why so many people are willing to lay down their lives to help the person in question become king. I know in the Book of Mormon there are many times where someone wants to become king and they are supported by people who also want power and promised that they will be placed within positions of power so that they can have the desires of their heart. But why would entire armies go to war just because one certain man desires power? One thought is perhaps they were mercenaries. Perhaps they desired money and so they sold themselves to the highest bidder.

I cannot understand why some men, and women for that matter, will do all these things just for power and to try and be king, or be in a position of authority. And we still see it today. Every election year we see people campaigning to become a senator, or a representative of the state or a governor or even President of the United States. And they have such a following of people. I can't help but wonder why they desire these things. But we each have our own trials and weaknesses to overcome. Everyone has their own weaknesses.

I believe we have talked about this before, but it is interesting to me how each person's weakness is tailored to what will help them grow the most. Someone like me who has no desire to drink alcohol or smoke a cigarette is not tempted by these things. It is not one of my weaknesses and never has been. Likewise I have never desired power or positions of authority. These are not my trials. My trials lean in other directions. For example I had a really bad temper as a child and teenager that I struggled with for many, many years that I had to overcome. I still have to wrestle with my emotions at times, but I do not have the temper I once had. I feel extremely lucky that even though I had a bad temper, it was never accompanied by violence. I've always been a very gentle hearted man and am extremely grateful to my Father in Heaven that I never had the problem of controlling urges to do violence.

Now there are those who look at my life and my trials and wonder why I struggle with them at all, but that is because they are my trials and they tailored to me and to help me grow. To be honest I look at most people's trials and just shake my head, often in disgust. It blows my mind how many people we have addicted to alcohol in this country, and what's even worse to me is the sheer amount of people who would claim they are not alcoholics. And yet I cannot go to a sit down restaurant with my wife without it being assumed we are going to consume liquor! Tell me we are not a nation of people addicted to alcoholics and I will call you a liar. But I think we are also addicted to violence and sex in this country. So many shows focus on violence. And yet we justify it because it is the "good guys" doing all the violence. Cop shows glorify criminals even if we don't realize it. But we have already talked about this in another post. I don't think anyone over the age of 10 needs me to expand on just how we are addicted to sex in this country.

In a few chapters we will read that the Lord gives men weaknesses to humble them so that we will turn to the Lord. He gives us weaknesses we cannot defeat on our own so that we will come to Him and ask for His help. I truly believe we progressed as much as we could in our past life and when we could progress no further, what we still needed to work on because our trial here on earth. We learn in Alma 13 that we could choose to disobey God's commands when in our previous life and so we must have had challenges in our past life just like we do in this one. And that is exactly why this life is the time to prepare to return to God. As we strive to be better men and women in this life, we will be so much further ahead than those who squandered their time here on this life. Use your time wisely and do what He has asked of us to do. Strive to improve yourself and overcome your weakness and you will find joy in the journey. Until tomorrow.