2.166 Hold Onto the Light You Have Been Given

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth, a bold reminder that our lives are meant to carry his flavor, his truth, and his love to the world. Join me each day to explore one verse of scripture and one thought, striving to stay full of savor and truly live as savory salt. Hello my friends, it is great to have you with me.

Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. Wow, this week has been an awesome week for me. I have loved diving into Doctrine and Covenants sections 60 through 63, as well as Alma chapters 6 through 10.

And we're going to finish this week inside of Alma chapter 9. There is so much inside of here that we could select from. But I want you to take a moment and remember one of the purposes of the Book of Mormon and remember part of the challenge that Moroni gives us in the Book of Mormon.

If I haven't given you the clue enough, one of the purposes the Book of Mormon serves is for us to remember how merciful the Lord has been with our fathers and those in the generations that have come before us. Remember the blessings of the Lord in our lives. What does Moroni tell us?

If you will receive these things and read them, I would that you should remember how merciful the Lord has been. Remembering is a power play for us to bring the Spirit of the Lord back into our lives. Remembering the times that we have had the light of Christ in our lives helps us to bring it back.

And that's what we see Alma doing here as he and Amulek are going to preach to the Ammonihites? Did I say that right? Alma chapter 9, verse 19 is the beginning of a monster sentence, as sometimes the Book of Mormon is known to do.

The sentence actually goes from verses 19 through 23. So make sure that you keep all of that together, but I want to give the front end of it, and you can read through the rest of it. It says, 'For he will not suffer you, that you shall live in your iniquities, to destroy his people.

I say unto you, Nay, he would rather suffer that the Lamanites might destroy all his people who are called the people of Nephi, if it were possible that they could fall into sins and transgressions, after having had so much light and so much knowledge given unto them of the Lord their God.' Now, that doesn't sound like it's a remember piece, but now he's going to go into verses 20, 21, 22, 23. He's going to take them back to all of this light and knowledge that the Nephites had been blessed with. He's going to try and help the people of Ammonihah remember the light and knowledge that they were blessed with.

Now how can we do something like this in our lives? I remember. I think she was an Olympian or a Paralympian and I cannot remember.

It was at a conference that I was at. I cannot remember who it was that had the suggestion. Otherwise, I would say go see if she still has this.

It's been years ago. But she created when she was preparing for her Olympian level sport. I can even remember what sport she was.

She had what she called an emotional Band-Aid kit. So, what she had done is she had taken an old Band-Aid container and inside of it she had taken items in her life that were representations of great moments in her life. She had taken a small toy, she had taken like a bracelet or a necklace from a family member that had given to her.

And the idea was, this Band-Aid kit was for her on her difficult days, and she would open it up and she would be able to pull these items out, and it would remind her of better days and good times. My friends, we absolutely can do something like that in our lives for our testimonies. Do you have favorite scriptures that you could put down on pieces of paper or even, you know, make a nice cardstock of it?

Do you have mementos from your life? Small items that perhaps a gift that was given on your baptism day or perhaps something that happened when you were moving on in the priesthood and you were ordained to a new office in the priesthood or something. Here, you could build a spiritual reminder kit.

A little place in your room, perhaps. Maybe even have a spot, just a visual trigger, that you can turn to in those difficult times and remember what the Lord has done for you so that we don't find ourselves falling into the sin and transgression that the people of Ammonihah did. I love that Alma is going to start off his testimony with them, not by just coming in full speed ahead and saying, repent, repent, repent, repent.

I love the power of Alma's testimony and I am grateful that we get to dive in next week. That's all for today my friends. Lift up your hearts and rejoice.

Cleave into the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt. For more information, visit us at www.fema.org.