Alma 24

I'm scared a little, but determined! I really want to finish the Book of Mormon before the end of the year. And then I want to start the lofty goal of finishing all of the standard works in a year. I've seen it done before, but I am not a reader and easily distracted by modern day technology, so it could be tricky.
Anyway, back to the point of this post.
I am not very good at memorizing scriptures, but if I was this would be a good chapter to memorize some key verses from. (Elder Matthew Kealamakia pointed out to me that this new idea of ponderizing is less about memorizing and more about pondering. And I am all over that!)
Anyway, a few key verses from this chapter.
Actually, I want to start with a phrase. I think the phrases "thank my God" and "thank my great God" stuck out to me so much because it is the week of Thanksgiving. The author of this chapter really conveys how grateful these people were to have found the Gospel and to be forgiven. I want to feel that same way and express my gratitude to him for the Gospel in my life and for forgiveness.
In verse 10, he talks about forgiveness, but what stuck out even more to me was having the guilt taken away from our hearts. In one of my major moments of sin, I went through the full on repentance stage where I need priesthood authority involved and was put on probation for a few months. It's been many years, and I was assured when the time was over that I had been forgiven and that I should remember my sins no more. But in all these years, I've still felt a sense of guilt that I can't get over. This verse gave me hope that if I dig deeper and strive to draw closer to my Savior that I could let those feelings of guilt go 100%.
There is kind of a controversial phrase from the Book of Mormon that bothers the non-LDS Christian community. And it is the phrase, "All we can do" found in 2 Nephi 25:23. That we are saved by grace after all we can do. And I love how here in Alma 24:11 this author is telling us, all we can do is repent. We can't get rid of these terrible things. But repentance changed them to the point where you can see that their actions, the things the "do" from that point out our mighty.
Verse 13 We cannot commit this sin again. But in verse 14, He told us before we repented that we couldn't be forgiven again if we committed murder again. And he did this because he loves us. He loves our souls, and "our children."
Verse 15: Let us hide our weapons as a testimony to our God. What can we "do" to show him we are changed. Heavenly Father didn't say now what are you going to do to show me you have changed your way. He just said don't do it again, that will "show" me you have repented. But they took it a step further and buried their weapons and their defense system as a testimony to him that they would never do it again. It's a whole step further.
Verse 19, and thus we see, that when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were FIRM.
Ahh! It's getting late, and I must go to bed, but the chapter isn't over. We know that the wicked Lamanites came and attacked the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's and that they refused to defend themselves and break their covenants, so 1,005 were killed (vs 22). Reading this, I thought for a second, how foolish. You didn't have to die. Heavenly Father wouldn't have been made if you defended yourselves. But then I saw that they didn't die in vain. The Lamanites weren't entirely heartless. They noticed that they were killing people who wouldn't fight back and they threw down their weapons too. And in verse 26, the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's were joined by more than the # of people who were slain. It wasn't in vain. And in verse 29, we see that the people who joined the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's we descendants straight from Laman and Lemuel.
And verse 30 is the kicker and so important for me to remember in this day and age. The people that had done the most killing that day and who hadn't changed were Amalekites and Amulonites, people who were once Nephites. People who leave the church fight the hardest against it.
I'd like to note that not all of them fight against. Some walk away peaceably and don't come back and try to "kill" all of us.