2.192 Stirred Up in Remembrance

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's great to have you with me. Today let's be anxiously engaged in a good cause and bring to pass much righteousness. I hope you have enjoyed Doctrine and Covenants section 76 this week.

We're going to shift gears into our other reading in Alma chapters 25 through 28. Last season I realized that I did not select any verses from Alma chapter 25, at least based on the history that I have here. And so I wanted to I wanted to take a second.

I thought, well, there's got to be something in Alma 25 that we should take a look at. And I landed on one that is a great reminder for me. I wanted to share with you today a way that I used to share the Book of Mormon with others.

So I'm excited to talk about the verse and then kind of the way that I approached sharing the Book of Mormon with others. Alma 25:6 is our verse for today. Verse 6 says: For many of them after having suffered much loss and so many afflictions began to be stirred up in remembrance of the words which Aaron and his brethren had preached to them in their land.

Therefore they began to disbelieve the traditions of their fathers and to believe in the Lord and that he gave great power unto the Nephites. And thus there were many of them converted in the wilderness. Now I know we've just shifted gears from Doctrine and Covenants 76, so trying to jump back into the story of what's happening here in Alma 25 could be a little bit of a gear shift, right?

We're like, whoa, over into the other lane we're going on here. But what we have is a group of Lamanites that are remembering the teachings of Aaron and his brethren. Now remember, Aaron and his brothers had a very, very difficult time amongst the Lamanites.

We're also going to see in Alma 25 a great remembrance of those all the way back that dealt with Abinadi and his preaching. And so these two groups are going to have a moment at which At this point, they remember the words of others. That's what made me actually think about a specific example, a time when I gave a Book of Mormon to a friend of mine.

And then I thought, well, wait a second, I can't remember if I've shared this in the season before. So if I have, here's another opportunity to share it again. If you're new to listening, here's one for you.

I used to take copies of the Book of Mormon and when my friends were having specific challenges in their lives or a particular difficulty or perhaps they were wrestling and maybe we had several conversations around a particular topic, I used to take just a brand new copy of the Book of Mormon and highlight just some verses throughout the Book of Mormon that I felt addressed maybe some of the things they were talking about or some of the concerns they were having, some of the difficulties that they were facing. And then I would give them the copy of the Book of Mormon and let them know that I had been thinking about them and that I felt that the highlighted verses were verses that would speak particularly to their heart over that given topic. And so it meant for me that I wasn't just giving an empty Book of Mormon, but actually a Book of Mormon that I felt had a kind of a layer of love on there.

Because I had thought specifically about that individual in order to prepare those specific verses. And it's interesting because this one that I had given to a friend of mine, you know, we never talked about it again over the years. And yet, as we sat down to have lunch one afternoon, he let me know.

He said, you know, I got to tell you, I still have that Book of Mormon you gave me. And I'm like, that's cool, man. And he goes, and I got to tell you, in some of my difficult times, I actually open it up and go read the verses that you highlighted for me.

I love that story because we see what happens here in Alma 25:6 in our modern days as well. Whether we're missionaries and we just have an opportunity to bear a short testimony, So it feeds for me and for you a reminder that no testimony goes lost, right? Maybe we have those moments where we just like, man, that just did not go the way that I planned.

But this is an opportunity for us to plant seeds to friends and family and loved ones, and then allow those seeds to just wait for their proper season, and then ultimately help to begin to stir up in remembrance the words that we've shared with them. I don't necessarily do that much anymore, but I love that this verse brought me up into my own remembrance of a time where I was using the Book of Mormon specifically to help my friends through the lens of the challenges they were facing. And then gave me an opportunity to bear testimony of its truthfulness.

I hope that you and I can all be stirred up in remembrance of the words that we've heard from living prophets, apostles, missionaries, loved ones, as we've heard testimonies borne of a living Jesus Christ. And I hope that we can take that and bring it to a greater level of conversion for each one of us. That's all for today, my friends.

Lift up your hearts and rejoice. Cleave unto the covenants you have made and together we will be savory salt.