2.354 Every Man with His Band Fighting

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've got a genuine question for you here.

The Lord has commanded us to be one, and if we are not one, we are not his. But how do we all figure out how to be one when we all want different things? That is a question that I've been stewing on as I've been We've been reading Ether.

Now we're reading the "Family Proclamation" this week as well as Ether 12 through 15 and Moroni 1. We're going to finish out the week inside of Ether and maybe Moroni here as we... Our verse for today is going to be in the middle of this chaos of the end destruction of the Jaredites.

And we're going to look inside of Ether 13 here to see this. We're going to see kind of this verse is the kickoff verse of the war. And this is the war to end all wars for the Jaredites.

This is the one that eventually just just destroys the civilization but it starts here in Ether 13:25. And this is what it says: "Now there began to be a war upon all the face of the land, every man with his band fighting for that which he desired." Now what stood out to me here was that tail end of that verse. Everybody's going to start fighting and they're going to fight with their bands and their families and their groups.

But what are they all fighting for? We don't really know. All we know is that everyone's fighting for whatever they want.

That which he desired. Now let's go back to our original question here because I've been stewing on this a little bit. When the Lord comes and shows himself to the Nephites in 3 Nephi 11.

One of the counsels he gives is to stop the disputations, but in order to be one, we would need to align ourselves with desire so that we're all driving towards the same goal and vision and mission. That way, in effect, while we're all individuals, we're all moving in the same direction. And then that led me to think about our Savior as an example of this here.

How does he show us to be one? And I think we learn in the New Testament, we certainly see it as the Lord prays and prays, "not my will be done, but thy will be done" as he prays to our Heavenly Father. My friends, I think it's interesting here to see that the Jaredites are arguing and battling, ultimately fighting and killing each other because they each wanted whatever they wanted.

No, I want this. No, I want this. I want this land.

I want this city. I want these people to die. I don't know.

But everyone's desires was different. It makes me wonder if we all sought the Lord's will in our prayers, if we would align as a people more unitedly, would we come into more of a singular vision if we all sought and asked the Lord to guide us as he would guide us? I think there's something there that's worth digging into for me and I wanted to bring it up for you today.

My friends, I hope that as we seek in our own lives for our own personal desires that we include inside of those desires to seek to understand and know and follow the will of the Lord. I hope we include it in our prayers. I hope we include it collectively as we attend our sacrament meetings and Sunday school and priesthood, Relief Society, young men, young women classes, all the places.

I hope that we seek the Lord's will to guide us and direct us so that we may align and ultimately be united and be one. I think the message inside of that is very timely with our week that we spent inside the "Family Proclamation" as well.