Day 184 Aaron: The Wisdom of Walking Away

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth, and in the same sentence offers a warning that savorless salt is good for nothing. Join me in an attempt to be savory salt as I share each day one verse of scripture and one small thought. Perhaps this small daily emphasis can lead to greater savor in your life and ultimately you and I can be savory salt.

Hello, my friends and family, wherever you're listening from. Thank you for joining me and know that I'm cheering for your every success. Welcome to day 184.

This has been quite a journey as we're diving through this and we are continuing on the missionary adventures, which we will do for the next several chapters still. Today, you're going to be reading Alma chapter 21 verses 9 through 23. You will finish that chapter and then just break into Alma 22 with verses 1 through 3.

And Aaron's going to dive into the King of the Lamanites there. But today we're going to spend our time inside of Alma 21 and share one quick verse inside of that chapter. It's on the front end of your reading today, and it's a little interesting.

We get kind of this fast, abbreviated version of what happened to Aaron and the others while Ammon was doing his stuff with Lamoni, right? These verses today are really what we are kind of getting the fast summary of what happened to them. Verse 10 is interesting to me as Aaron is trying to use the scriptures to teach and preach.

And verse 10 says this: "And it came to pass as he began to expound these things unto them, they were angry with him and began to mock him, and they would not hear the words which he spake." Now it's an interesting choice today. I understand this kind of sets it in a weird context. I picked this scripture because it kind of starts the other dominoes falling down.

As you go through the reading here, Aaron's response to them mocking him and being angry with him is to leave. It's not to fight back. It's not to be contentious.

It's not to find more scriptures to further try to convince them of their errors. Aaron leaves. He leaves from village to village.

His brothers leave other villages. And ultimately in Middoni they do get captured and taken into prison. So they can't leave there, right, until Ammon comes.

But there's such an interesting concept there: Look, he shares his testimony, he tries to use the scriptures to teach of Christ, and when they are angry and mock him and they reject him, he leaves. And I think there's something that I could probably pull from that today in my own life. It's so easy, especially online and in social media, to get sucked in to the contention and get sucked into the opinions.

And look, I'm not even one that responds or says things inside of it, but I'm one that partakes of it as I read it here and there. And don't get me wrong. I don't just get lost in it forever, but I'm in the contention.

I'm in the argument because I'm reading everyone's both sides back and forth, back and forth. And I thought, wow, how interesting it is for Aaron, who is trying to do his missionary work as best he can, to share his testimony, watch their response. And when their response is so negative, he simply walks away.

He leaves the town or the village. And I can absolutely learn something from that. I want to bear my testimony to those that want to hear it.

I want to share my thoughts and my feelings and the joy that I have from the Spirit. I want to share it with those that want to hear those stories. And if I find myself in a situation where those are not welcome, well, maybe I could take a page out of Aaron's book here and simply walk away.

I don't know what that means for you and your experiences as you've tried to share your testimony or share a scripture with a friend or a village, right? Maybe where you work, maybe your neighborhood, whatever it may be. But I think it's worth pausing in there and saying, hey, Aaron doesn't engage in the contention.

He doesn't engage in the frustrations and the anger. He simply walks away. Something I could spend a little time pondering what that means for me in my life.

That's all for today, my friends. Remember that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. Keep it small, keep it simple, and always seek to be savory salt. I'll be here tomorrow and I hope you are too.