December 23, 2010

I read Alma 62:12-52 which is the account of the end of the war between the Nephites and Lamanites that had been going on for so long. Two things stood out to me. The first is how the Nephites had captured a bunch of Lamanites and given them the opportunity to make a covenant to never take up their weapons against the Nephites again. The group of Lamanites who covenanted this numbered 4,000 and the Nephites sent them off to join the people of Ammon. What struck me is that these 4,000 people were no longer considered as or treated as prisoners of war as soon as they made that covenant. They were fully trusted to go on their own to join the people of Ammon. To me, that indicates the power of a covenant. Great trust is established as a result of a covenant. While writing this, I thought of the covenant I have made with God. And now he trusts me, just like those Nephites trusted the Lamanites, that I will go and truly do what I covenanted. 

The other thing that stood out to me in these verses was verse 41. It says, "because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depths of humility." This struck me because as a result of the same adversity, some people's hearts were hardened and some hearts were softened. This indicates to me that the hardening or softening of a person's heart doesn't depend on the type of adversity one encounters, rather it depends on the type of person one is. I want to be one who always allows my heart to be softened by adversity, to be humbled by it, rather than hardened.