And He That Will Hear My Voice Shall Be My Sheep;

Mosiah 26:21 And he that will hear my voice shall be my sheep . . .

Here lies the secret.  Here lies the answer.  We want to be His people, His sheep.  We want to feel that He loves us.  And the Lord here tells Alma how to tell who those people are.  They are those who hear His voice.

Sometimes in our world there are many voices.  The voices in our 21st Century world seem to be more and louder than at any other time.  They come into our homes and tell us what to buy and how to live and who to laugh at.  Somehow amid all that cacophony we need to learn to sort out the Lord's voice from the other voices.  We need to tune in to His voice and tune out the others.  Then we need to follow Him, to obey Him, to love Him and serve Him.

If we can learn to do this, the Lord promises that we will be His sheep.  The Lord will watch over us and lead us and protect us and gather us.  We will be His.

They Are My People

Alma has been asked to judge the people who are rebelling against the church, and he is very concerned and has inquired of the Lord.  The Lord's response begins by telling Alma that God is pleased with him and that he loves him for accepting the testimony of Abinadi.  He also loves the people who accepted the gospel because of Alma's testimony.  

Mosiah 26:18  Yea, blessed is this people who are willing to bear my ^aname; for in my ^bname shall they be called; and they are mine.

The Lord uses similar language in D&C 50:40-42 as He talks about the early Saints. 

 40 Behold, ye are little children and ye cannot ^abear all things now; ye must ^bgrow in ^cgrace and in the knowledge of the truth.

 41 ^aFear not, little ^bchildren, for you are mine, and I have ^covercome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath ^dgiven me;

 42 And none of them that my Father hath given me shall be ^alost.

The Lord loves all of His children with a love beyond our ability to imagine, but He loves His obedient and faithful children with a special love and and blesses them and holds them in the hollow of His hand.

If we would be loved and treasured as the people of Alma, it's up to us.  We also must grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.  We must be obedient and faithful and diligent and fear not, but trust in the Lord.  We can be His.

They Did Submit Cheerfully

 Mosiah 24:15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

I've had some pretty hard burdens at times, and I suspect that the Lord strengthened me to bear those burdens.  But I don't remember staying cheerful.  I know I pushed forward and got through it, but how cheerful was I?

I like this quote: 

Elaine Cannon

"Life is like that. When we can't change a circumstance, we can either grit our teeth and hang on with clenched jaws, or we can submit cheerfully until change occurs. And with God's help we can learn some important lessons. We can feel peace." (Adversity, p. 61)

I'm not quite sure how to do this.  I'm afraid I'm more of a "grit our teeth and hang on with clenched jaws" kind of person.  I know I'm not going to give up, but I'm not very joyous about it.  I think it's tied to gratitude.  When things are tough, we need to look for the blessings, to watch for the beautiful sunsets, for joyous music, for babies' faces, for the strength of friends, for love of family.  If we can see those things despite our pain, we can rejoice in our blessings that are always present whatever the trials.  Yes, it may be a Pollyanna kind of attitude, but that's better than being gloomy and making everyone around you feel the same.

Nevertheless the Lord Seeth Fit to Chasten His People

Mosiah 23:21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to ^achasten his people; yea, he trieth their ^bpatience and their faith.

We don't usually think of being chastened and tried as blessings, but if they're coming from the Lord, they must be.  Of course, the real problem is that we have such a narrow definition of "blessings".  We assume that if it makes us happy, it's a blessing.  If our life is fun and pleasurable, we're being blessed.  

Neal A. Maxwell said:  "Faith ... includes faith in God's developmental purposes, for 'the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.' (Mosiah 23:21.) Still, some of us have trouble when God's tutoring is applied to us! We plead for exemption more than we do for sanctification." (Ensign, May 1991, p. 90.)

And a quote from President Howard W. Hunter:

"Mormon surely knew that no pain we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God." (Ensign, Nov. 1987, p. 60 as taken from Latter-day Commentary on the Book of Mormon compiled by K. Douglas Bassett, p. 316)

The Lord has many different ways of blessing us.  He gives us things to make us happy, he gives us commandments to teach us how to follow Him, and He gives us suffering and trials to help us to learn how to be more like Him.

It's very hard to be grateful when things aren't being fun, when our hearts are aching, and when things aren't going as we hoped they would.  Especially when we know we're being obedient and faithful.  This story about Alma and his people is one of the best examples of how the Lord gives us adversity and then helps us through it.  Sometimes He lets us suffer a bit for our own growth, sometimes He leaves the trial on our shoulders, but lightens the load.  And sometimes He removes the test from us.  He heals the sick, He takes away the problem.  But not always.

Sometimes the disease isn't cured, but remains part of our world for the rest of our lives.  Sometimes our darling child isn't healed with a priesthood blessing, and she dies.  At times like these, we are comforted by the faith that the Lord knows what is best for everyone; that He can see the end from the beginning; that He loves us and will ALWAYS bless us in whatever way is best for us.

They Became the Children of God

Isn't that a great phrase of Mormon's?  He's describing how the people of Alma were taught by the priests he had ordained.  It's found in Mosiah 18, verses 18-30.

We need to remember that these people lived in the world of King Benjamin, a world of revelry and immorality and drunkenness.  We don't know exactly how long it had been since King Zeniff had died, but it was about 10 years before Abinadi appeared the first time, and then he hid for a couple of years before he came back to testify before his death.  So these people were probably pretty immersed in this wicked culture.  They may not have been partaking in it, but just lying low.  We do know that when Alma started preaching secretly, they responded and joined him eagerly.

Now they were carefully gathering to be taught.  They had clapped their hands for joy when he explained the baptismal covenants to them and they had been baptized.  ". . .and were filled with the grace of God".

Now Alma ordained priests to teach them and guide them.  I think his instructions to the new priests are notable:

• They should teach and preach unto them concerning the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
• They should only teach the things he had taught, and also the teachings of the prophets.
• They should teach only repentance and faith on the Lord.
• There should be no contention among them.  They should have unity of belief in one faith and one baptism, "having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another."

 It's at this point that Mormon tells us that they became the children of God.  Then he tells more of Alma's instructions:

• They should observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
• Every day they should give thanks to their Lord.
• The priests should support themselves by their own labors.
• They should try to meet together one day a week to worship and teach.
• The people should share their substance with one another and see to the temporal and spiritual needs of one another, of their free will.

If we could all do those things as wards and branches and neighbors, I think we would feel that we are becoming the children of God.  Really, as I rub shoulders with those wonderful people at church meetings, I feel that I'm privileged to associate with children of God already.