The people in Zarahemla who were members of the Church remembered Alma's father and, for many of them, their own fathers. Those who were not members were invited to partake of those memories and the lessons to be learned therein.
Nephi taught that we should liken the scriptures to ourselves so that we might learn from them and be better people as a result. Alma asked the people to do just that and to build upon those memories of their fathers. (Alma 5: 15 - 16)
- First he asked if they, too, had been spiritually born of God as their fathers?
- Have they received Christ's image in their countenance?
- Have they experienced this mighty change of heart?
This mighty change of heart is a real transformation in which the fallen man or woman becomes a new creature in Christ. If you have been born again, you will be a different person on many levels. You will still have trials and tempations and struggles, but you will find that as you grow in Christ, you will find that even the idea of doing evil becomes repugnant to you. You will still make mistakes, but when you do, you will repent quickly so that you can return to the harmony with the Holy Ghost. It is difficult to explain, but when it happens, you will know it.
When I was younger, I used to find it easier to embroider the truth than to tell it straight out. I think, because I was a first-born child, that I felt I had to be perfect yesterday and if what was happening did not conform to that narrative, I would rearrange the facts to fit the narrative: embellishment better known as a lie. Now, I shudder at the very fact of telling an untruth. I will go out of my way to make sure I am understood lest someone else not believe me. I call myself a recovering perfectionist. As with other "addictions," I am always recovering and never quite recovered.
In other words, once a person has this mighty change of heart, this born again experience, he or she cannot rest on the laurels of past achievement. If I am not continually moving forward into a life in Christ, then I am stopped - even damned - from progressing. If I continue stopped at the crossroads, as it were, I will regress.
Alma asked his people if they had received Christ's image in their countenance. I ask myself the same thing. Does my life reflect the life of the Savior? Can others feel His love through me? Do I love like He did? Do I forgive seventy times seven? Do I mourn with those who mourn? Do I weep for the pains and sins of this world? Do I comfort those who stand in need of comfort and lift the hearts of those whose heads and hand hang down. Do I leave judgment to Him who knows the hearts of all people? Have I been sufficiently humbled that, were I to be called home today, I would be ready to fall at His feet in reverance?
It is easy to take my spiritual pulse or read my own heart on an EKG printout. It is much more challenging to take my spiritual pulse or understand my spiritual heart. Alma posed these questions to invite those who heard him to do just that. Do I have the courage to do so?
© Dr. Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson May 2020
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