BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” As part of their undergraduate coursework, BYU students take multiple semesters of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes.
In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures.
In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming of Christ—Nephi, Lehi, Alma, Helaman, and other unfamiliar names. We hope those names will become more familiar to you as you read their inspiring words and feel the relevance and divinity of their messages through these letters.)
Let us know if you’d like to receive your own digital copy of the Book of Mormon, and/or if these messages encourage and assist you spiritually as well.
About Mormons: Faith and Love
This week I feel inspired to write about Helaman’s army, the 2000 young men that are often referred to as the “stripling warriors.” The verses that inspired me are Alma 37:21-27. Verse 21 reads: “Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them.” Two things from this passage and the passages that follow had a big impression upon me. First of all, the importance of mothers in our lives. These verses caused me to ponder on all the many things that my mother has taught me, how grateful I am for all that she does and has done for me. I feel very grateful for her love and affection, and I hope and pray that people can realize the importance of mothers and stop undervaluing them. Secondly I was impressed by their faith. They “did obey and observe… everything… with exactness,” they did all that they did through their great faith. They were able to win a battle without losing a single warrior’s life because of their strong faith.
I was able to learn a few things from these verses after reading them again. Faith is a choice, therefore we can choose to have faith and believe or we can choose to not have faith. Faith also does not mean you believe God is able or can do something, it means you believe God will do something. The stripling warriors believed with all their might that if they were obedient and followed with exactness that God would deliver them from their enemies. I hope that I, and others who read these passages, can learn from the stripling warriors and choose to have faith. If we already believe in God, then it should not be too difficult to have faith that He will deliver us also from our enemies.
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