Day 209 Sharing Failures and Remembering Jesus Christ

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 209 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together.

Today, we're peeling off Alma's story in a way that we haven't had since Mosiah. You're going to be reading Alma chapter 36, verses 7 through 25 today. And this is Alma talking to one of his sons, and we're going to have him talking to several of his sons for the next several chapters, as we mentioned yesterday.

This is to Helaman as he shares his story. And I want to get straight into the verse here because this verse, there's a lot to choose here. It's his conversion story told by his own voice.

And yet the verse here that I chose is really something that I think is true to my heart. I'm excited to share it with you today. It's Alma chapter 36, verse 17.

He's in the middle of talking about his challenges in his story, and it says: "And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world." Now I tried to pick the verse here that's the link between the two pieces of the message that I want to share with you today. The first is that Alma is sharing with his son a time in his life when he was not making great choices. And he's sharing with his son his failures and times when he was not following the commandments of God.

And I think it's really interesting. That first part is an interesting lesson. Not that we need to necessarily sit down in some sort of repentance court with our children, but Alma's going to talk openly about his failures, and he's going to share it with his sons in the attempt that they can learn from those failures.

And I think, personally, talking about failures is so much of a taboo in today's society that we don't do it enough. It's difficult to talk about our failures, but look at what comes on the backside of it. And I think bearing testimony with family members, regardless of their personal beliefs, should be often and regular.

And so I love this verse here because it reminds me of a time in my life where I experienced this. And it was an impressionable time in my life. I had the experience of having an uncle move in with us.

I love him. He moved in with us, and I was in high school. Very impressionable time in my life.

And he talked; he and I had a lot of time in the afternoons before my parents had come home from work. It was just, it was just he and I, and he talked openly with me about the challenges he faced with his alcoholism. That was one of the reasons that he had moved in with us was to try to help get his life in order.

And he was reading the Book of Mormon at a time that I was trying to figure out the Book of Mormon. And so the two of us would talk about lessons we would learn inside of there. But it's interesting, the perspective that I gained on a life of alcohol through his lens, because he was willing to just answer my questions.

And I can't remember specific questions I asked, and I certainly hope I never asked questions that dug too deep or hurt too much to him. I didn't mean that by any means. I love that he was willing to talk to me openly about his experience because I think inside of it, it strengthened his testimony of what was happening through his repentance process, and it strengthened my testimony as I literally watched him change his life for the better and put his pieces back together in his life and his family relationships, and all of those pieces started coming back together as he sought to include Christ in his life.

If you don't want to get into the details of specific things, that's okay. But look at what Alma is doing here with his sons. He's willing to share these failures and also share the testimony that he has of Christ lifting him through those failures.

I think it's a beautiful example and a beautiful model for us to follow in our own lives and be a little more comfortable sharing the challenges and the failures that we've faced early on. 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.