November 22, 2010

I read Alma 51 tonight. It is an account of another battle between Moroni's people (the Nephites) and Amalakiah's army (the Lamanites.) Two things stood out to me. The first, is that the year this battle commenced, before the Lamanites attacked, contention arose among the Nephites between people who claimed noble blood who wanted the government to be changed so they could attain positions of power, and those people who maintained a free government. They had to fight for their liberty against these "kingmen." And they fought through voting. The "voice of the people" favored the "freemen." Unfortunately, when the Lamanites were on their way to attack, the kingmen though they would get revenge by refusing to fight. Moroni was really angry at their stubbornness and requested permission from the governor to force the kingmen to either fight or be put to death. Permission was granted and it ended up that the Nephites were fighting among themselves, against these dissenters. Four thousand of them were killed and the rest agreed to defend their standard of liberty, but while all this was going on, Amalakiah and his armies were able to take control of a good number of the Nephites' cities that were on the coast, and many Nephites were killed. This story illustrates how important unity is in defending our families and country. Sadly, because there was not unity among them, many were killed.

The second thing that stood out to me comes in the second part of this account, where Teancum and his men pursue Amalakiah and his army all through the day. Finally, when night came and everyone pitched their tents, everyone fell asleep except for Teancum and one of his servants, who snuck into the Lamanites' camp and into Amalakiah's tent, where Teancum put a javelin in Amalakiah's heart. I thought, what if Teancum had simply chosen to fall asleep and fight in the morning? Certainly he was tired along with everyone else who had been fighting all day long, yet he chose to stay awake and his actions ended the battle a lot sooner, as well as the life of an extremely wicked man. To me this is a great example of pushing yourself just beyond that point where most everyone else takes a break, gives up, or "goes to sleep" and thus creating a victory out of circumstances that wouldn't have happened were it not for your determination, tenacity and perseverance.