2.277 Appoint for Their Chief Captains... Some One that had the Spirit of Revelation

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. What do we look for in our leaders? We've been reading this week Doctrine and Covenants sections 109 and 110 as well as 3 Nephi chapters 1 through 5.

And while it's something that I don't regularly do, let's pause for just a second and consider leadership for just a second. I typically am recording these episodes in an attempt to make them kind of an evergreen, something that you can come back to, listen to anytime, place, anywhere. And so I typically don't have specific timeline events associated here.

And yet, as I've been recording these episodes early on and kind of been ahead of the week a little bit, the passing of President Nelson has come into play since my recordings. President Nelson I think is a wonderful example of what we're going to look at today in 3 Nephi. Although it's interesting because the Nephites do have a little bit different structure than we do when it comes to their leaders.

Let's see what we can look at inside of the verse for today and then see what we can see with President Nelson and maybe other leaders that we see in our lives as well. Our verse for today is 3 Nephi 3:19. It says, Therefore, Gidgiddoni was a great prophet among them, as also was the chief judge.

Now, again, we have to understand the context here of the Nephites and their selections. Their government structure is different than ours in that they could absolutely have leaders that would be both church service leaders and political leaders. Alma is an example of one of those, right?

We see these leaders where for the Nephites it kind of blends a little bit, but it has kind of given me some pause and some reflection, especially when considering our prophet apostles who are not necessarily elected or appointed by us versus the leaders that we find in the political atmosphere. And that could be all the way down at a local leadership level, all the way up to national leaders, whatever it may be in whatever circumstance or what country you're part of. I think the key understanding here is what the Nephites were looking for in their leaders.

They were looking for these chief captains. They needed to have the ability to lead at a time, especially a time where they're constantly at battle with the Lamanites. So they needed to have this intellectual ability to lead men into war but then they also sought for those that had the spirit of revelation and prophecy.

My friends, I think a lot of us tend to separate the political world from the religious world. And we tend to kind of say, "Well, my beliefs matter on Sunday or my beliefs matter inside my home but my beliefs shouldn't matter inside of political offices." And I think we do a great job of that. I'm absolutely grateful for the examples that President Nelson has set throughout the years of meeting not just with religious leaders throughout the years, but through the times that he has sat and talked and met with political leaders around the world as well.

It's been quite interesting to see a response politically from leaders around the world talking about the role that Russell M. Nelson played in their lives and the relationship that he had with them. I think it's a great reminder for us to remember to seek out leaders who align with the Lord who seek out leaders that seek to live morally upright and to live according to the dictates and commandments that the Lord has given us.

Does it mean that those men and women that seek for political leadership have to be of our same faith or inside of our same church? The level of revelation and prophecy that those leaders could bring to the table in their leadership. Absolutely worth pausing and reflecting on and absolutely a shout out to President Nelson for the work that he did throughout his life across all the political and religious spectrums.

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.