Soap Box Sunday

Do I ever manage to do the Soap Box on Sunday? No. :)

This week's Gospel Doctrine lesson discussed the sad ending to the Nephite civilization. Mormon and Moroni and only 33 others are left, and the Lamanites are still hunting them. Mormon even tells us that he cannot write even a hundredth part of the things that occured.

There were SO MANY things to learn from these chapters, but the part that I felt really applies to us in these difficult times is this:

Mormon 8:17, 22

"O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!"

"O that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, knoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy."

Hugh Nibley said:
“The tragedy of the Book of Mormon is not what became of the Nephites but what the Nephites became.”

And Ezra Taft Benson described it this way:
“Great nations do not fall because of external aggression; they first erode and decay inwardly, so that, like rotten fruit, they fall of themselves. The strength of a country is the sum total of the moral strength of the individuals in that country.”

It is interesting to think about a civilization, people, or culture eroding from within SO MUCH that at one point, 230,000 people are killed in a single day of battle (our biggest war casualties...during the civil war in the 1860's amounted to about 140,000 within a 5-year period). Now, I don't want to make this about gloom and doom. And I'm not saying that our nation is actually headed there in the fast lane or anything. Who am I to predict? But, I can tell you this--I see our nation eroding from within, yes. Eroding in morality, justice, civility, and integrity.

At one point, the Nephites won two consecutive battles against the Lamanites. Unfortunately, by this time, they were beyond feeling, and ended up boasting in their own strength, causing Mormon to observe:

"[We won] . . .Nevertheless the strength of the Lord was not with us; yea, we were left to ourselves, that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us; therefore we had become weak (without theHoly Ghost) like unto our brethren." (Mormon 2:26)

As our society erodes in these last days, as corruption rises and as moral standards fall, it is important as Latter-day Saints to strengthen ourselves from within. We must not become "weak like unto our bretheren," meaning we must always strive to take the higher road, stand in holy places, work at maintaining the Holy Ghost as our constant companion. Of course, we should also be good examples to those around us and allow others to feel of the Spirit through missionary work and the simple tokens of light and truth we can give to them.

I know that as we strive to keep from "eroding from within" ourselves, no matter what happens in these times, and to our society and people, we will be strengthened and uplifted. The prophet, Alma said it perfectly:

"I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things" (Alma 26:12).