November 17, 2024
Prophet Mormon & Willingness to Forgive
Dear Elder Yu,
An insight that I learned from the Scripture Central YouTube Channel last few weeks when studying Mormon Chapter 7 is the willingness to forgive. It is indeed very hard for me to do currently, you know what I mean.
Chapter 7 is the final chapter written by Mormon, the chief abridger. It is fascinating to note that he could have talked about in his last chapter, that he chooses to address the Latter-day descendants of the Lamanites.
There is something beautifully Christ-like about what is going on here.
If I consider what would I say to a group of people who are descended from an entire population that destroyed my family, my nation, and my people, and killed everybody? I am not sure if I would be prone to speak kindly to that group. For instance, what my husband has done to me?
But, we see this beautiful Christ-like principle of forgiveness, of not holding grudges. This charity, this pure love of Christ that flows through Mormon, and we see it in his words. Right out of the first verse in chapter seven, he says,
1 And now, behold, I would speak somewhat unto the remnant of this people who are spared, if it so be that God may give unto them my words, that they may know of the things of their fathers; yea, I speak unto you, ye remnant of the house of Israel; and these are the words which I speak:
2 Know ye that ye are of the house of Israel.
3 Know ye that ye must come unto repentance, or ye cannot be saved.
4 Know ye that ye must lay down your weapons of war, and delight no more in the shedding of blood, and take them not again, save it be that God shall command you.
5 Know ye that ye must come to the knowledge of your fathers, and repent of all your sins and iniquities, and believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God, and that he was slain by the Jews, and by the power of the Father he hath risen again, whereby he hath gained the victory over the grave; and also in him is the sting of death swallowed up.
6 And he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead, whereby man must be raised to stand before his judgment-seat.
7 And he hath brought to pass the redemption of the world, whereby he that is found guiltless before him at the judgment day hath it given unto him to dwell in the presence of God in his kingdom, to sing ceaseless praises with the choirs above, unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost, which are one God, in a state of happiness which hath no end.
8 Therefore repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and lay hold upon the gospel of Christ, which shall be set before you, not only in this record but also in the record which shall come unto the Gentiles from the Jews, which record shall come from the Gentiles unto you.
9 For behold, this is written for the intent that ye may believe that; and if ye believe that ye will believe this also; and if ye believe this ye will know concerning your fathers, and also the marvelous works which were wrought by the power of God among them.
10 And ye will also know that ye are a remnant of the seed of Jacob; therefore ye are numbered among the people of the first covenant; and if it so be that ye believe in Christ, and are baptized, first with water, then with fire and with the Holy Ghost, following the example of our Savior, according to that which he hath commanded us, it shall be well with you in the day of judgment. Amen.
Whenever it was written, Mormon was surrounded by that group of people, those Lamanites, who wanted nothing more than to destroy the Nephites and him. He watched the entire destruction of not just his people, but his own family. His son is the only one that remains with the records.
While he was going to go on and give his final teachings, his final exhortations to this group of people who are descendants of this group of Lamanites. So, how do we learn from that? What do we apply in our own life, in our own situation today?
There are a million answers to that question. But, one consideration is to remember that as long as we choose to hold on to past wrongs, to grudges, to past offenses that have been committed against me, the more I hold on to those, the less I am capable of embracing the Savior's infinite power, His goodness, His grace, His healing.
And, what's more, if I am striving to become more like Christ, that means I need to work on developing his Christ-like attributes in my own life. One of the attributes of the Savior, one of the attributes of God, is this willingness to forgive – this willingness to not hold me hostage to my past wrongs and my mistakes.
So, whenever I am offended whenever another person hurts me, I can choose. I feel justified in holding on to that until justice has been served unto my husband. But it does not allow me to embrace and feel the loving embrace of the Savior to the same degree as when I drop that burden at His feet and let Him carry it. Let Him take those wrongs that were committed against me.
Mormon models beautifully here: possibly filling the pains of the war in his physical body that had been inflicted by these Lamanites, but not defining his life or his relationship with God or his relationship even with his enemies by those hurts or by those wounds that have been inflicted upon him. He was thinking celestial as President Nelson counseled. He was looking to the long term.
There is a beautiful pattern for us: If we have been hurt, we need the infinite healing power of the Savior Jesus Christ. We need Him to apply His atoning blood on our behalf. His infinite atonement is not just for sinners, not just for people who do wrong things, which happens to be all of us, but it is also for those who have been hurt, who have been afflicted with abuse or with any wrongdoing from other people that have caused pain or spiritual or physical injury.
We need the Savior Jesus Christ in His infinite atonement to heal us. We need to feel safe in His loving, healing embrace, which means we need to have Him help us drop those hurts, drop those offenses, and drop the burdens at His feet to be then able to move forward. I indeed need the Savior’s help to lift my hatred, to heal my wounded soul so that my mind and soul can be free from all this bondage.
Finally, of all the messages Mormon could have shared, of all the mysteries he could have revealed, that's what he chose to sign off within his last chapter. It is extremely significant for us today to keep going back to the basics and asking ourselves:
What is life really about? Why am I really here? Is it just to have a few thrills, a few experiences, make money, work like crazy to be able to support some hobbies, take some trips and buy some things, and work my way through life, trying to find some pleasures here or there?
Or am I here because it truly is an opportunity to strive to become more like God and to think celestial as President Nelson would invite and to see God and see people as eternal relationship potentials rather than just passing interactions or fleeting requests from heaven?
But, to build these deep identity-defining connections with God through our covenants with Him and through our faith in His only Begotten Son, to the point where we let go of more of the things that this world has to offer us, and we embrace more of Him and His divine power and His promises and His covenant connections that He offers us.
I love Mormon. He did such an amazing job of teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in such a way that most people do not even see him. They do not recognize Mormon because he is become transparent. He becomes a window to the Savior's power, glory, and love; Mormon tells everybody else's story without drawing attention to himself. I love that attribute, and I want to be more like that.
Can I just say we owe Mormon a huge debt of gratitude for choosing to live his life in such a way that the Lord could use him as an instrument to abridge this incredible book that is given to us today that has changed so many lives and brought so many people to Jesus Christ?
Mormon did all of that in the worst possible environment in the history of the Nephites. It was the worst. From the time he was a young child until 73 years old at that final battle, and who knows how many years beyond, he chose to stay a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ and to do the work of the Lord, and you and I now get to benefit from him.
We owe him a serious debt of gratitude for that, and we can now pass it on to people in our lives, in our circle of influence, and people in the future who can benefit from our choosing to stay strong in the faith of Jesus Christ and His gospel today in our life.
Before this, I always wondered why the book was named, “The Book of Mormon” because the entire book is about other prophets’ stories and Mormon’s stories just formed a very small percentage of the book. No doubt that he was the one who abridged all the brass plates and records.
Sometimes I would think that Mormon has so many similarities with Joseph Smith. They were chosen by God to do the same work: one abridged while another translated the records. They did the work in a very challenging living environment.
Imagine that to keep the sacred brass plates and records is no joke! How heavy it is? And now we are talking about abridged records, which means you have to flip through the heavy record plates to summarize it to a shorter filled with essential things which the Lord what you to write.
I am not comparing Joseph Smith and Mormon, but it seems as if Mormon’s work is much more harder or loaded to bear. Of course, God was always with Mormon when he was doing this great work, for this is the Lord’s work. With that, I think there is a reason why the scripture is named after his name – The Book of Mormon.
Love,
Mommy
