Day 239 True at All Times: The Stripling Warriors

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. There is a power that comes from being true at all times.

Welcome to day 239 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together. Today, you're going to be reading Alma chapter 53, verses 8 through 23, one of my favorite areas of the book, all the war chapters. And you'll begin Alma chapter 54 just a tiny bit with verses 1 through 3.

Our verse for today has to come from the stripling warriors, right? I mean these guys, we go from Moroni and Helaman, and these incredible leaders, and then we get the story of these incredible warriors. We're going to be reading Alma chapter 53, verse 20.

And even though I chose verse 20, the verses leading up to this tell you so much about these incredible young men. And these young men are coming from the group that are the Anti-Nephites. This is the group that swore not to pick up arms and defend themselves anymore because of the violence that they had before they were converted to the Lord.

Here we have their sons, who many of them would have grown up without fathers because they were slain before by the Lamanites. Many of them are grown up just with moms. They're taught in their youth.

They're still young. Here we have Alma 53, verse 20. It says, "And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity.

But behold, this was not all. They were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted." You know, this takes me back to National Treasure, actually. There's the part where Nicolas Cage is reading from the Declaration of Independence.

And he pauses and he says something to the effect of, we don't talk like that anymore, right? Like we don't, we don't say stuff like that anymore. And there's a phrase that stood out to me here in this verse that I feel the same way.

They were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted. I think about these, this is an area that I want so badly to be a strength in my life and it an area that I see so much room for improvement at the same time. I want to be somebody that not just does what I say I'm going to do, I want to be somebody that people can trust at all times.

That if there is something I've been entrusted with, it's going to happen and it's going to get done. And I think that this aspect of this, this piece right here is a great indicator of why these stripling warriors are going to have such great success inside of their battles. We're going to have in Alma 57, and we're not going to get there today, right?

But in Alma chapter 57, when we get there, we're going to see a moment where Helaman realizes this. And so I'm just putting that there so that you kind of file it away. But this got me thinking specifically of a time in my life on my mission.

I was, I've talked about this place before. I was in Hoved, which I affectionately call the farthest place on earth. And maybe if you find it on a map, you may or may not agree, depending on where you've been in the world or where you've served.

But it was a very, very tiny branch. So much so that there were only really two families and then a branch president and his wife. And there was a young man that I could say fits this description.

He was in his teens. In fact, right before I left the area, we helped him fill out his missionary paperwork. So he was, you know, 18, 19 years old.

But if we needed him, he was there. He was there to get the sacrament ready on Sundays, and he had to do all things sacrament because he was the only Aaronic Priesthood holder. And, you know, we would help, but he was there for the sacrament.

He was there to pass the sacrament. He was there if we needed someone to come with us. If we needed a member to be at a lesson, he was there.

He was there at all times. He was true at all times to the things that he was entrusted with. 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.