Day 245 The Power of Exact Obedience

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. I know that I'm cheering for your every success.

Welcome to Day 245 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon and celebrate yourself and your accomplishments at this point. You have reached 65% completed through the Book of Mormon. Well done.

We are well on our way on the downslope of the Book of Mormon, with just 35% of it. Can you believe what we have accomplished as we've done a little bit at a time every day? Congratulations!

We also reached over 24 hours officially in Savory Salt itself. So, if you've been listening to Savory Salt through this, thank you for joining me with this. We have successfully today reached a day together through this year of study, and I thank you for joining me.

Today, you're going to be reading Alma chapter 57, verses 5 through 26, right in the middle of the warriors that Helaman is talking about here, trying to accomplish some of the getting back of the cities that they have lost to the Lamanites. And here we have another example of these 2,000 warriors saving the group, doing their best, going forward in battle, having success. And I think we get some great insight as to why they had some success.

We know that they're brave. We know that they follow the Lord. We know that they have strong testimonies and beliefs in the Lord.

And then we see another little one. I alluded to this several episodes ago, and now we get to actually see it in scripture. It's Alma chapter 57, verse 21.

It says, "Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness. Yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them. And I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them." Now yesterday, we had the mother example inside of Savory Salt.

Today, it continues. Although this time, I imagine the mothers teaching these sons obedience. They performed every word of command with exactness.

I see mothers help their sons realize that when they are told to do something, they get it done. When they are given a command, they follow the commandment, especially through the lens of living the commandments of the Lord. I think it is interesting today to see how we see the wide variances that come to play with those that follow the commandments of the Lord to varying degrees.

I'm trying to remember, I think it was Elder Packer that talked about this in a talk that I remember him giving. I think it was Elder Packer. I should have done a little research with that one.

But he said, you know, the commandments are not a buffet line. We don't walk along the Lord's commandments and kind of say, you know what, I'm going to follow a little bit of this here, and I'm going to try a little bit of that in my life, and maybe we'll dabble with a little bit of this, and get this platter of different variances of following the commandments. What we learned here from the 2,000 stripling warriors is that they were preserved for very specific reasons.

And one of them being that they did perform every word of command with exactness. They didn't question. They didn't wonder why they were being told to do that.

They performed with exactness according to their faith, and it was done unto them. I think I can absolutely take a lesson here from the 2,000 Stripling Warriors and remember that when it comes to following the commandments of the Lord, there is really no variance. You are either following the commandment from the Lord or you're not.

There's not a sort of following the commandments from the Lord. And I'm grateful for that reminder from the 2,000 Stripling Warriors as they have great success inside of this part of the Book of Mormon. It can help me remember that as I work to keep the commandments of the Lord to their exactness, I too can have faith that the Lord will bless me for the efforts that I put forward.

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.