THEY WOULD NOT CALL UPON THE LORD

We read in Mosiah 26:4 that those of the rising generation who could not, would not, and did not believe, preferring to remain in their carnal and sinful state . . . would not call upon the Lord their God. Even so - or perhaps because - parents still need to teach of Christ by precept and example. Even if they choose to reject our teachings, they still have them in their hearts to draw upon in times of trial.

So it was with Alma and his son, Alma.  Alma taught his son, a son who later chose not only to violate those teachings, but to persecute those who did and seek to destroy their faith.  But someone once said, "There are no atheists in foxholes."  Alma the younger found his foxhole when an angel of God shocked him with a voice like thunder.  Alma the Younger was so shocked that he fell to earth as if he were dead.*  

Harrowed up by the memory of my sins

For three days, he was tormented with what he called the pains of a damned soul. When he was on the brink of giving himself up to total damnation, he recalls what his father had taught him. Later, when relating this story to his son Helaman, he said:

And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment and 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. (Alma 36: 17-19)

Many sermons can be - and have been - preached on this one story.  I use it here to point out one point: Alma had taught his son, Alma the Younger, about Christ.  In young Alma's moment of despair, those teachings were still there in his mind.  They were a tiny glimmer of light in a tormented darkness of his soul.  He looked to that light and called upon Jesus for deliverance and he was delivered from the torments of death and hell.

It was Nephi who wrote: And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins. (2 Nephi 25:26)

Sometimes we, as parents, can despair of our children ever hearing our words. They may make choices diametrically opposed to those things which we taught them.  As I look at the story of the two Almas I take heart. Alma the Younger became about as wicked as he could be, despite his father being the Prophet of the Church.  But, because his father had planted teaching about Jesus Christ in his heart, when Alma needed help the most, he remembered those words.  

When our children go astray, we can rest in the knowledge that they were God's before they were ours.  If we have taught them with love about the God of Love, they might one day fall into their own foxhole.  If our testimony is somewhere in their heart, no matter how buried it may be, they can draw on it in the time of need.

They won't have that testimony to draw on if we don't plant it for them.

© May 2020 Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson

* Alma related his story on several different occasions.  I'd like to wait to deal with his full testimony at a later date.