Day 214 Our Actions Speak Louder Than Words

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 214 on our 365 day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Today you're going to be reading Alma chapter 39 verses 1 through 14.

We're going to move into Alma's third son at least based on the recordings that we have and this is his counsel to Corianton who it seems For when they saw your conduct, they would not believe in my words. And the piece I want to bring out here is that tail end right there. It's really kind of interesting.

The process that happened here as Corianton went forward and committed the sins that he committed, the Zoramites saw the conduct and they would not believe the words that Alma was preaching. Because here they saw a follower or supposed follower that was sinning And it brought to mind several different times I really think that when people find out that I a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints I kind of get two different responses And really kind of two it really kind of whittled down to two types of responses One response is oh I met someone from that church and they really great people And so that really cool that I know someone else from that church And I had that type of scenario I had that in Houston once actually with a friend of mine as we found out that he worked on the police force in Denver, Colorado, with a guy that was a member of the church. And, you know, he had great respect for him and he was a great guy to work with the police force.

And then the other type of response is kind of like, oh, yeah, I know people like you. And that's really kind of interesting because I think what's happening here is that Corianton, yes, he went forward and made some mistakes and, you know, we hope that he took Alma's words here and he repented and made up for that. But in his example, what we see here is Corianton actually All of us here today became a negative example of a follower of Jesus Christ.

And today I'd like to encourage you to just embrace the idea that when we take the sacrament, we take upon us the name of Jesus Christ. And that is for good and for bad. We never know who is watching what we're doing, and we never know who around us may be impacted by the decisions we make.

But Alma gives us a great lesson for all of us here to remember that if we do make those Names of the Bible Book of Mormon Doctrine follower of Christ making those types of mistakes Is there a place for forgiveness and repentance Absolutely. I'm not discounting that at all. But as we go forward, try to do the best that we can, remembering that we stand as examples and witnesses and we've taken upon us the name of Jesus Christ week over week.

That's a role that we've chosen to do as a member of this church and I hope that we can all do it with the Spirit, following the commandments, doing the best we possibly can to put forward the best face of Jesus Christ that we possibly can. 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.