We see many conversations in the Book of Mormon where fathers teach their sons and their impact changes not only their son’s life, but the generations that follow. The lessons are profound. The impact overwhelming. If there was ever scripture that calls out for fathers to step into their parenting role with power, the Book of Mormon is it.
You can also find it on any of these platforms by searching for Meridian Magazine-Come Follow Me.
Maurine and Scot Proctor have taught Book of Mormon for many years in Institute and have spent extensive time in the Arabian peninsula, following Lehi’s trail. They are the creators of a foundation that has sponsored a multi-year archaeological study of the best candidate for Nephi’s Bountiful in Oman. They have written a book on the Book of Mormon, as well as immersed themselves in the culture, history, and geography. of the scripture.
Maurine
We see many conversations in the Book of Mormon where fathers teach their sons and their impact changes not only their son’s life, but the generations that follow. The lessons are profound. The impact overwhelming. If there was ever scripture that calls out for fathers to step into their parenting role with power, the Book of Mormon is it.
Scot
Hello dear friends and welcome to Meridian Magazine’s Come Follow Me Podcast. Today we are studying Alma 36-38 called “Look to God and Live”. If you haven’t yet purchased my ebook “Eleven Things You Probably Didn’t Know about the Book of Mormon” do it today. It is inspiring and enlightening to see new things in the book you know so well. Who were Nephi’s sisters? Have the plates of brass fulfilled their mission? Who wrote them? What was in the box in the Hill Cumorah besides the golden plates? You can get the ebook at latterdaysaintmag.com/eleventhings with the eleven spelled out—e-l-e-v-e-n. That’s latterdaysaintmag.com/eleventhings. Don’t forget to read Meridian Magazine’s great articles every day. You can sign up for the free daily email on our site.
Maurine
A father who took great care in teaching his children once told us that a hamburger can go a long way. What he meant was that life is busy and sometimes pulls us apart from our children with urgencies and tasks. The occasional grabbing a hamburger together or any other activity that puts you one-on-one with your children is worth more than you know. Fathers and mothers, it is your chance to teach them what really matters—the gospel of Jesus Christ. I can’t help but notice in Alma chapters 36-38, where Alma is teaching Helaman and Shiblon, that he has pulled them aside for persuasive and potent testimony bearing, and he does it through sharing the significant spiritual experiences of his own life.
Do your children know about those events and moments in your life that have spiritually shaped you? Have you shared with them the pillars of your testimony, the times the Spirit has so deeply touched you? We have a friend who every week in a Sunday email shares the lesson or the spiritual moments of his last week with his children. What a good idea. They won’t know how much you know and love the Savior if you don’t tell them.
Scot
Alma begins his testimony to Helaman with words we need so much today in our tumultuous world. We have shared events like the pandemic and rioting, but we also have tumults of our own souls. We completely understand the words from poet W.B. Yeats, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
Yet, Alma tells Helman “that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted at the last day” (Alma 36:3).
What more can anyone want? You will not be alone in your trials but supported by the only One who truly can strengthen you when it seems all strength is gone. Or He comforts with unparalleled healing you when the world seems bleak and comfortless.
Maurine
We have known those times. Some of my most meaningful spiritual moments are private and small. It is when I come heartbroken to the Lord in prayer and feel comforted when I arise again. Or when I am afraid to do something, and suddenly I feel new strength to do what looked so hard. Helaman must have had his father’s words ringing in his mind, his entire life at every one of mortality’s tough moments: “whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles”
Scot, you texted me a thought from Elder Neil L. Andersen, just yesterday morning that rings with this same kind of assurance. He said, “As evil increases in the world, there is a compensatory spiritual power for the righteous. As the world slides from its spiritual moorings, the Lord prepares the way for those who seek Him, offering them greater assurance, greater confirmation, and greater confidence in the spiritual direction they are traveling. The gift of the Holy Ghost becomes a brighter light in the emerging twilight.” (Elder Neil L. Andersen, “A Compensatory Spiritual Power for the Righteous” https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/neil-l-andersen/a-compensatory-spiritual-power-for-the-righteous/
Scot
If you truly trust the Lord, then life’s events don’t seem so meaningless, random or painful, because you really know that He will comfort you and make all things work together for your good. I remember the response of an older friend of ours when she learned that she had terminal cancer. She responded with such serenity and said, “We all know that we will die someday. Now I just have a better understanding of the timing.” This was trust and comfort.
There are times when life is just bewilderingly tough, and yet, and yet, there is something alive and full of light inside that tells you all is well.
Now Alma was not speaking just in theory or about something he had read somewhere. he wanted Helaman to be clear , “if I had not been born of God I should not have known these things; but God has, by the mouth of his holy angel, made these things known unto me” (Alma 36:3).
This was powerful, first-hand testimony, and an example of the kind of sharing we can do with our children about our first-hand testimonies.
Maurine
I also like how honest Alma is with Helaman about how lost he had been. He doesn’t back off saying, “I went about with the sons of Mosiah, seeking to destroy the church of God” (Alma 36:4). There is no sugarcoating his sins here. That’s why his change through the healing of Christ is so profound.
He tells the story to Helaman about the holy angel coming to stop him on his way. It is the same story in Mosiah 27, only this time it is told from Alma’s point of view and we get the details of what is happening in his spirit.
Yes, the angel came with “the voice of thunder, and the whole earth did tremble beneath our feet” (Alma 36:7) and, yes, the angel said, “If thou wilt of thyself be destroyed, seek no more to destroy the church of God” (Alma 36:9) but now we learn more of that inner wrestle.
Scot
Alma said, “As I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
“Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
“And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.
“And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!
“Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy” (Alma 36:17-21).
Maurine
I know no better description of the utter anguish of sin and the unutterable joy of repentance, the awe of moving into that marvelous light. Because of His magnificent generosity, the Lord has given us the inestimable gift of the atonement that means that we can find ourselves again. We can turn back home. We can be reconciled with God and we don’t have to be lost or stay lost.
Sometimes you might make the mistake of thinking that your sins are so grave or have been so damaging that you could never return into that marvelous light. You might look around and see that your bad choices or even your mistakes have moved you out of that light into what seems like eternal darkness. You might feel destroyed by your own anger or the wrong turn you took. You might have destroyed a relationship with a thoughtless or cruel word. You might have an addiction that has plagued you for years and wonder why should I repent today if I will inevitably fail again tomorrow? You might have even come to believe that you are a hopelessly bad person or that your weaknesses have hung on so long that this is “just who I am..”
Scot
You are wrong if you believe your sin has rendered you beyond help. Your sin or mistake or weakness is not as large as the Lord’s atonement. It is an infinite atonement. A gift from an infinite being, whose merits and mercy are well beyond the bounds of your sin or the way you’ve missed the mark. Who are you to believe that any darkness in you cannot be penetrated by His marvelous light? Who are you to think that your sin is bigger than His gift? It is his amazing grace that penetrates down to the level of the lowliest sinner who will come to him.
In fact, remember the words to the song “Amazing Grace”. It goes
“Amazing grace. How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I am found,
Was blind, but now I see.”
Maurine
The man, who wrote that song, John Newton, was born in 1725 to a Puritan mother, who soon died, and a stern sea captain father who took him to sea when he was only 11.
Many voyages later he was a tawdry youth who drank too much.
He lost his first job in a merchant’s office because of “unsettled behavior and impatience of restraint” and then joined the Royal Navy, but later deserted. He was caught, put in irons, and flogged. He was finally discharged to a ship transporting slaves and then ended up in Africa where he worked for a slave trader.
He said, “I sinned with a high hand” and that might have been the sum total of his life, but something profound happened.
Scot
Newton came to serve on the ship called the Greyhound, and on its homeward journey back to Liverpool, an enormous storm threatened to sink the ship. He recalled a passage from Proverbs, “Because I have called and ye have refused,…I will also laugh at your calamity.” He converted during the storm but, he said, “I cannot consider myself to have been a believer, in the full sense of the word.”
It took him some time, but this former trafficker in slaves became a Christian and dedicated abolitionist. (See https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/pastorsandpreachers/john-newton.html)
Maurine
Thus Newton knows what he means when he says “Amazing grace, saved a wretch like me.” Nothing is impossible with the Lord, even our sins, though they be as scarlet can be washed clean.
Elder Holland also tells a sweet story about repentance that happened to Clyn D. Barrus when he was seven years old and living on a large Idaho farm where his nightly assignment was to round up the cows at milking time.
Elder Holland said, “Because the cows pastured in a field bordered by the occasionally treacherous Teton River, the strict rule in the Barrus household was that during the spring flood season the children were never to go after any cows who ventured across the river. They were always to return home and seek mature help.
Scot
“One Saturday just after his seventh birthday, Brother Barrus’s parents promised the family a night at the movies if the chores were done on time. But when young Clyn arrived at the pasture, the cows he sought had crossed the river, even though it was running at high flood stage. Knowing his rare night at the movies was in jeopardy, he decided to go after the cows himself, even though he had been warned many times never to do so.
“As the seven-year-old urged his old horse, Banner, down into the cold, swift stream, the horse’s head barely cleared the water. An adult sitting on the horse would have been safe, but at Brother Barrus’s tender age, the current completely covered him except when the horse lunged forward several times, bringing Clyn’s head above water just enough to gasp for air.”
Maurine
Here Elder Holland turns “to Brother Barrus’s own words:
“’When Banner finally climbed the other bank, I realized that my life had been in grave danger and that I had done a terrible thing—I had knowingly disobeyed my father. I felt that I could redeem myself only by bringing the cows home safely. Maybe then my father would forgive me. But it was already dusk, and I didn’t know for sure where I was. Despair overwhelmed me. I was wet and cold, lost and afraid.
“’I climbed down from old Banner, fell to the ground by his feet, and began to cry. Between thick sobs, I tried to offer a prayer, repeating over and over to my Father in Heaven, “I’m sorry. Forgive me! I’m sorry. Forgive me!”
“’I prayed for a long time. When I finally looked up, I saw through my tears a figure dressed in white walking toward me. In the dark, I felt certain it must be an angel sent in answer to my prayers. I did not move or make a sound as the figure approached, so overwhelmed was I by what I saw. Would the Lord really send an angel to me, who had been so disobedient?
Scot
“’Then a familiar voice said, “Son, I’ve been looking for you.” In the darkness I recognized the voice of my father and ran to his outstretched arms. He held me tightly, then said gently, “I was worried. I’m glad I found you.”
“’I tried to tell him how sorry I was, but only disjointed words came out of my trembling lips—‘Thank you … darkness … afraid … river … alone.’ Later that night I learned that when I had not returned from the pasture, my father had come looking for me. When neither I nor the cows were to be found, he knew I had crossed the river and was in danger. Because it was dark and time was of the essence, he removed his clothes down to his long white thermal underwear, tied his shoes around his neck, and swam a treacherous river to rescue a wayward son.’” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Ministry of Angels” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2008/10/the-ministry-of-angels?lang=eng
Maurine
The Lord has done so much more than swim a treacherous river for us. He has confronted the most treacherous and painful darkness because He loves us.
Alma had been a very sophisticated sinner whose persuasions had caused the spiritual destruction of many—and yet even he could be forgiven. The atonement is much larger than our sins, whatever they be.
This Alma chapter 36 is also deeply moving for another reason.
Scot
This chapter of Alma is written in an ancient Hebrew literary form called a chiasmus. It is a literary device where ideas are repeated in reverse order in the same or modified form. That means that the idea that is first, appears again at the last of the passage or chapter. The second idea appears again second to the last. The third idea appears again third from the last and so forth We’ve heard it often. A simple example would be that “the first shall be last and the last shall be first.”
The reason a chiasm is formed like this is because it means that all of the writing points to the center and the center is usually the most important message. It is the hingepoint, the place of master meaning.
Maurine
In Alma 36, the center is this in verses 17 and 18 where Alma says:
“I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
“Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am bin the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.”
Scot
There it is the point not only of Alma’s teachings, but the cry of every mortal being, “O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me” for we are all sinners. We might think that big sinners have a big hole in their boat and you only have a little one, but ultimately we are all going to sink anyway, unless we have this saving grace.
It is a moment of deep self-understanding when we can finally see and truly acknowledge our complete need for mercy and grace.
Maurine
If you check online for the chiasmus in Alma 36, you will be able to find it and it will give you added appreciation for the reality that the Book of Mormon is an ancient book. Hebrew chiasm is found in Hebrew biblical scripture, but it is also found in the Book of Mormon.
In fact, it was discovered to be in many places in the Book of Mormon over 50 years ago when in the early morning hours of Aug. 16, 1967, a young missionary in Regensburg, Germany named John W. Welch awoke with a thought playing in his head. He had been with a companion to an academic lecture where he had first learned about this ancient Hebrew literary form called chiasmus.
The thought that he couldn’t shake that morning was, “If [chiasmus] is evidence of Hebrew style in the Bible, it must be evidence of Hebrew style in the Book of Mormon.” (see https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/how-was-chiasmus-discovered-in-the-book-of-mormon).
Scot
And there it was. Many sections and scriptures in the Book of Mormon are chiasms, and these are just another mark of the authenticity of the book. Joseph Smith could not have known about chiasm nor consciously put them in. But the Book of Mormon has many.
So the center or heart of Alma 36 is “O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.”
Maurine
It is the message not just for Alma, but for all of us without the atonement of Jesus Christ. Our situation would be completely impossible without the Savior’s atonement.
This gift saves us from what hurts us the most—our own weaknesses and sins. Nobody sabotages us as much as we sabotage ourselves. What pains us most is not what somebody else has done to us or what we think life has done to us. It is what we have done to ourselves.
Scot
We can understand more about the meaning of sin as it is described in the New Testament by looking at the original Greek. The word that is translated as sin is “hamartia”.
It means to miss the mark, to err or be mistaken, to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor. It means to do or go wrong or to wander from the law of God and violate his law.
Maurine
You can see that sin then is a wide spectrum of thoughts and actions—everything from deliberately rebelling against God to simply missing the mark or being mistaken. Because no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God, we are separated from Him by a wide variety of weakness.
And He is willing to heal them all and move us into that marvelous light. There is no limitation on his capacity to reach down to where we are and lift us to Him—if we are willing.
Scot
Elder Theodore M. Burton once gave a stunning talk at BYU called “The Meaning of Repentance” where he said that part of his responsibility as a General Authority was to consider applications from transgressors to be readmitted into the Church and to restore their priesthood and/or temple blessings.
He said, “Many times a bishop will write: “I feel he has suffered enough!” But suffering is not repentance. Suffering comes from lack of complete repentance. A stake president will write: “I feel he has been punished enough!” But punishment is not repentance.
Punishment follows disobedience and precedes repentance. A husband will write: ‘My wife has confessed everything!’ But confession is not repentance. Confession is an admission of guilt that occurs as repentance begins. A wife will write: ‘My husband is filled with remorse!’ But remorse is not repentance. Remorse and sorrow continue because a person has not yet fully repented. But if suffering, punishment, confession, remorse, and sorrow are not repentance, what is repentance?”
Maurine
To describe what repentance is, he explored the Hebrew word from the Old Testament for repentance, which is “shube.”
Elder Burton said, “When a person despairs and says: ‘There is nothing left for me!’ ‘All hope is gone!’ ‘I can’t be forgiven!’ ‘What purpose is left in life?’ ‘I might as well be dead!’ God instructs the ‘watchman on the tower’ to
‘Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked [shube, or] turn from his way and live: [shube, shube!] turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? [Ezekiel 33:8–11]”
Scot
Elder Burton continued, “I know of no kinder, sweeter passage in the Old Testament than those beautiful lines. Can you hear a kind, wise, gentle, loving Father in Heaven pleading with you to ‘shube’ or turn back to him, to leave unhappiness, sorrow, regret, and despair behind and now turn back to your Father’s family where you can find happiness, joy, and acceptance among his other children? In the Father’s family, you are surrounded with love and affection. That is the message of the Old Testament, and prophet after prophet writes of ‘shube,’ which is that turning back to the family of the Lord where you can be received with joy and rejoicing. There is an implicit message there that we in the family of Jesus Christ ought never forget. We must receive the former transgressor back into this family with open arms and comfort and bless him for making the change.
Maurine
Elder Burton continued, “That is what Isaiah had in mind when he wrote:
“’Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near;
“’Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him [shube, or] return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon [if he will only shube]. [Isaiah 55:6–7]”
Shube means to “restore the pledge.” Elder Burton said, “To restore the pledge means to renew one’s covenant with the Lord. Forget all excuses and finally recognize fully, exactly, what you have done. Don’t say, ‘If I hadn’t been so angry,’ ‘If my parents had only been more strict,’ ‘If my bishop had only been more understanding,’ ‘If my teachers had only taught me better,’ ‘If it hadn’t been so dark,’ “’f I hadn’t been so hungry,’’If the stake president had only helped me to understand,’ etc., etc., etc. There are hundreds of such excuses, none of which matter much in the final analysis.”
Scot
“One thing we should remember is that the Lord does not punish us for our sins. He simply withholds his blessings and we punish ourselves. The scriptures tell us again and again that the wicked are punished by the wicked. A simple illustration can show how easily that is done. If Mother tells me not to touch a hot stove because it will burn and hurt me, she is only stating the law. If I should forget or deliberately touch that hot stove, I would be burned. I could cry and complain of my hurts, but who would be punishing me? Would it be Mother—or the hot stove? I would be punishing myself. Even after my finger healed, I would have to remember the law, for every time I would touch that hot stove I would be burned, again and again, until I could learn to obey the law. It was and is the law, and justice would have to be done. This illustration, however, disregards the important element of mercy.
Maurine
To Ezekiel:
None [not even one] of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live. [Ezekiel 33: 16]
To Isaiah:
I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. [Isaiah 43:25] (Theodore M. Burton, The Meaning of Repentance, https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/theodore-m-burton/meaning-repentance/)
What extraordinary mercy our God has.
Scot
It is not surprising then, that this message also rings in Alma’s talk with Shiblon.
He says: “And now, my son, I have told you this that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn of me that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world” (Alma 38:9).
Maurine
That is so clear. No other way. Christ is the only way. People would have you believe that there are many roads to salvation. Sometimes salvation or heaven is described as the middle of wheel that has many spokes that lead in, all going in eventually to the same place. That is a false image. Christ is the only way whereby we can be saved.
The Lord has given commandments that lead us home. People would like to think instead that they have better or even more compassionate ideas. Other ideas are simply false road maps that lead you from one detour to another until you end up nowhere, alone and still far from home.
Scot
In Alma 37, Alma entrusts the Nephite records and the plates of brass to Helaman, and he seeks to impress deeply upon his mind the importance of these records. He notes, for example:
“Behold, it has been prophesied by our fathers, that they should be kept and handed down from one generation to another, and be kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord until they should go forth unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, that they shall know of the mysteries contained thereon.
Maurine
That is an enormous responsibility. It is the wisdom of God that these records be carefully guarded and cherished that as Alma says, they retain their brightness and mighty influence for good. This is how the Lord “doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls” (Alma 37:7). Using the plates of brass was how Ammon and his brethren brought about the conversion of the Lamanites.
This is the moment that Alma teaches Helaman and all of us a big lesson about small things.
Scot
He says:
“And the Lord God doth work by ameans to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very bsmall means the Lord doth cconfound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.
8 And now, it has hitherto been wisdom in God that these things should be preserved; for behold, athey have benlarged the memory of this people, yea, and convinced many of the error of their ways, and brought them to the cknowledge of their God unto the salvation of their souls. (Alma 37: 7,8).
Maurine
Alma returns to the theme of the importance of small things a few verses later as he talks about how the Liahona led their fathers through the wilderness.
“40 And it did work for them according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day.
“41 Nevertheless, because those miracles were worked by small means it did show unto them marvelous works. They were slothful and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey;
Scot
“42 Therefore, they tarried in the wilderness, or did anot travel a direct course, and were afflicted with hunger and thirst, because of their transgressions.
“43 And now, my son, I would that ye should understand that these things are not without a ashadow; for as our fathers were slothful to give heed to this compass (now these things were temporal) they did not prosper; even so it is with things which are spiritual.
It is in the power of small choices every day, every day, every day that our spiritual life grows. We choose to read the scriptures every day, every day, every day. In small moments when we could choose to angry, we bridle our temper, every day, every day, every day. We take time to pray instead of run off to our tasks and forget. Every day, every day, every day. These small choices all taken together become very large and shape our very being.
Maurine
The seemingly small choice to neglect spiritual things also impact our lives in large ways. I am reminded of a small thing that brought down a large airliner, killing 101 people.
On Friday, Dec. 29, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a jumbo L1011 airliner bound for Miami crashed in the Florida Everglades for a very sad reason.
The flight had been uneventful until it approached the Miami International Airport. Then Bob Loft, an experienced and veteran pilot, ordered the landing gear lowered, but an indicator light failed to confirm that it was down and locked.
Scot
The cockpit radioed the tower, “It looks like we’re gonna have to circle; we don’t have a light on yet.” The Orlando Sentinel reported, https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2007-12-29-flight29-story.html
“The jet circled west over the Everglades at 2,000 feet as the cockpit crew spent the final four minutes fixated on whether the problem was a burned-out $12 bulb — or faulty landing gear.
“It’s unclear how, but Loft or [First Officer Albert] Stockstill accidentally bumped the automatic pilot throttle, switching it off. The Lockheed L-1011 began descending. No one in the cockpit noticed.
Maurine
“By 11:41 p.m., Capt. Loft, satisfied the bulb was the culprit, advised the tower they were coming in, returning his attention to flying the plane. But it was too late.
“”We did something to the altitude,’ Stockstill warned.
“’Hey, what’s happening here?’ Loft said as he frantically pulled up while banking to the left in a futile attempt to rescue Flight 401.
Scot
Because the automatic pilot throttle had been accidentally switched off while they focused on the $12 landing light, when they thought they were at 2,000 feet they were actually on a dive crashing into the Everglades.
“The jumbo jet disappeared from the air controller’s radar screen at 11:42 p.m.
“Suddenly, there was a jarring pull to the left, as the wing sliced into the ground. The lights went out and a ball of fire raced down the cabin.
Maurine
“The jet went into a horizontal cartwheel, slamming down and breaking into several large sections, with each spinning across the slick terrain 18 miles west of Miami International.
“Then silence — everything stopped moving.” It was all because of a little thing. Everyone in the pilot’s cabin was frantically focused on the landing gear light and no one saw that the automatic pilot throttle had been accidentally turned off.
Scot
So small things. We build our lives on small things, or lose our lives often just by small distractions that take us away from our spiritual goals. We follow the Liahona through our wilderness or we wander on our own because we are too lazy to put in the prayer energy to receive direction. We choose to be blind instead of receive revelation.
Maurine
Now in Alma 37, Alma has warnings for his son about the plans of the secret combinations and tells Helaman, “Therefore ye shall keep these secret plans of their oaths and their covenants from this people” (Alma 37:29) We have much to say about secret combinations which we will talk about in future podcasts.
Scot
That’s all for today. We’re Scot and Maurine Proctor and this has been Meridian Magazine’s Come Follow Me podcast. Thanks to Paul Cardall for the music that begins and ends this podcast and to Michaela Proctor Hutchins who produces it. Next week we’ll be studying Alma 30-42 “The Great Plan of Happiness.” See you then.
