Alma 36-38

Alma 36

Alma 36 spends most of its time on mercy, forgiveness and repentance, but begins and ends with God's expectation on obedience. Kind of like a lens to view the rest of the chapter.

Let's look at repentance through the lens of obedience. Gods mercy is not a reason to avoid obedience, but rather an opportunity to continue to develop righteous reflexes, until our wills have been reconciled to him. Not to earn salvation, but to make ourselves ready to receive the salvation that he so generously offers us.

A Chiasmus is a really cool literary device that mirrors the first and second half of a story, usually to draw our attention to the center point. In this case it is verse 17 and 18 when Alma remembers Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ' place in the plan of salvation, is at the center. Let him be at the center of your teachings to your children.


I like how it also shows contraries. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that "by proving contraries, truth is made manifest". Alma was harrowed up by his sins, then after remembering and holding on to Jesus Christ, he was harrowed up no more. He could not imagine anything more painful, then could not imagine anything more joyful. He wanted nothing more than to be banished and even become extinct as to not meet his Maker, then 8 verses later his soul longed to be with God. 

As you experience a change of heart through repentance, you will see this chiasmus parallel in your life.  

Alma 37 

Okay in Ch 36 Alma taught his son how to repent. Now he's going to teach him how to work. 

V5-7 keeping the plates so that they retain their brightness may seem foolish. But by small and simple thing are great things bought to pass.
This thought has come across my mind lately; "do I really need to put on a shirt and tie to have church at home?".. that depends. What do you want church to feel like? This is just one example and not meant to make you feel dumb for not dressing up for church when you're at home. But it's things like this that might seem small, simple and even a little foolish.. but if it helps you keep sacred things sacred, do it.

God is great. His work his great. He must use great means to bring his work about, right? Nope:
V7 God works by small means

Some say that man came about by evolution, or that the world came about in a big bang. To that, I say okay. God had to do it somehow. Whether he used naturalistic means, or unexplainable divine power, its fine with me.

Some say that our spiritual experiences are neurologically explained, that it's just a dopamine dump, or a serotonin rush, just chemicals in the brain causing it. To that, I say okay. God has to do it somehow.

Even God doesn't create something out of nothing. He organizes matter. He works by means, often very small and simple ones.

Christ spat on the ground to heal the blind. Joseph used stones to interpret the gold plates. We use under garments to remind ourselves of covenants.

V11 Question marks are OKAY

V14-20 Read these verses as if God was talking to you about the people he has put in your life, or someday will.

V21, 27, 29, 32  Alma teaches his son the consequences of sin, not the composition of sin. He shows the final picture, but not the blue prints. 
He does not say "I led many souls unto destruction… and this is how I did it. I told them this lie, and inserted this half truth, and pressured them with this thing." Teach our children to hate sin, not stir up their curiosity in it. 

V33 Do we only rely on Christ's redeeming power? Or do we rely on Him to help us avoid sin all together?

The Atonement doesn't just pull weeds, it plants flowers. Prepare and prevent is far preferable than to repair and repent. If you have faith in the enabling power of the atonement, you'll need to use the redeeming power much less often. 

V34 Be anxiously engaged. Not anxious in our engagement. 

I love the conflicting words here. If we are never weary of good works, we will find rest for our souls. 

World's understanding: less work = more rest. 

Heaven's understanding: more good works = more rest. 

V35 The most important thing we can learn in our youth: learn how to learn. 

V38-47 Pretend he is talking about the scriptures instead of the Liahona in these verses. 

Alma 38

We get a quick look into Shiblon's strengths and weaknesses. Or maybe better said, here's his attributes, and their good sides and their bad sides.

If you take a careful inventory of yourself, you will find many attributes, each attribute having a strength and a weakness. 

Ether 12:27                     God will make weak things strong
Elder Oaks 1992 BYU:   Our strengths can become our downfall.

Each attribute is like a coin with 2 sides. Heads and tails, or good and bad.

Harold B Lee's daughter was asked what it was like growing up in her home, she said "I will always be grateful for a father that was gentle beneath his firmness, and a mother who was firm beneath her gentleness.
These people sound like great parents, because they understood their strengths, and developed the related weakness. 

Strengths and weaknesses are connected. It’s the same coin. I'm weak here, because I'm strong here. Vice versa. 

ACTIVITY: Identify your own coins. Not "what are my strengths and weaknesses".. but rather - "Here is an attribute I have, what is it's strengths and it's weaknesses?" 

If I'm faithful and turn it over to the lord, He can flip the weakness into a strength. And He can keep our strengths checked so they do not become our vices. 

A virtue taken to an extreme becomes a vice. When the "heads" side becomes too top heavy, it flips. 

Examples:

Justice.        Extreme: judgmental, harsh, over zealous, strictness

Mercy.        Extreme: Excusing, enabling

Order          Extreme: Tyranny

Freedom     Extreme: Anarchy

Faith           Extreme: Lazy, complacent

Works         Extreme: Prideful, self sufficient

These coins check each other from becoming extreme. It's like every attribute has it's heads and tails (Freedom and anarchy), but also has it's mirror attribute (Order). Together, these coupled attributes can lock each other into place. 

This is a developing thought for me, hope it made sense! Still going to study it much further. 

V11-12 You know that kid in high school who seemed to be incredibly talented at everything, and when he showed off it was still hard to hate him because was really good and even kind while doing so? This is how I picture Shiblon. Shiblon's pride actually has legs to stand on because he really is an awesome kid. So Alma warns him of pride and overbearance. 

Last thought, I wonder how many lives have changed because of Alma's life changing event? Share your life changing events, big or small, you can't imagine the end result.