The Suffering of the Righteous

Well, I am finally back to my everyday scripture study, after weeks of weird schedules on vacation and preparing for my lesson last week. Today I am reading Alma chapter 14...


I am a little worried. Yesterday there was a comment made during the lesson about how sometimes when you attend the temple your family may not be safe and it doesn't mean you are a bad person. Then, today the first thing that jumped out to me from my manual on chapter 14 was the section about how bad things happen to good people ("The Suffering of the Righteous.")


I really hope that the Lord isn't trying to prepare me for something...


Alma 14:8-11 Talks about how Alma and Amulek had the power to bring down punishment on the men who killed the believers of God, but didn't because he said that God permits the righteous to suffer for a purpose.


It says this in my manual:


"...if all sick were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. If pain, sorrow, and total punishment immediately followed the doing of evil, no soul would repeat a misdeed. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil-all would do good and not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, no Satanic controls...no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or death...an absence of joy, success, resurrection, eternal life. and godhood.

The Hard Questions

These questions were ones that I got a little worried about...things I need to work on.

1. Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? (Could I ever feel ready to die and meet my maker? Daily repentance for small sins and sins of omission, including keeping a constant prayer in my heart are ways to feel more prepared.)

2. Are ye stripped of pride? (Does everyone have a hard time letting people serve them? It is almost uncomfortable for me...)

3. Are ye stripped of envy? (Of course I always look at people and wish I had things, including a house, nice clothes, a boat, etc. that they have. Instead I need to just be happy for them and remember that I am so so so so blessed for what I have.)

4. Do ye mock your brothers and sisters?

5. Will ye persist in the wearing of costly apparel and setting your hearts upon the vain things of the world, upon your riches? (refer back to question 3 and you will see where I need to repent)

6. Will ye persist in supposing that ye are better than one another?

7. Will ye persist in turning your backs upon the poor and the needy, and in withholding your substance from them?

Money

So, today has just been one of those days...I'm sure a lot of you, especially the young moms I know, get stressed and frustrated about money. The next six years were starting to look really depressing to me today, with finances just being so super tight and life seeming harder than usual, and I went through most of the day feeling this way; hopeless. Then, after running around all day, I finally got to sit down for a minute and read. I started reading where I left off last - Alma 4:5 and then I started on the next verse...

"the people began to wax proud, because of their exceeding riches...Now this was the cause of much affliction to Alma, yea, and to many of the people whom Alma consecrated to be teachers, and priests, and elders over the church; yea many of them were sorely grieved for the wickedness which they saw had begun to be among their people..."

I almost laughed! In my margins I had written:

wealth=pride=unrighteousness

Set my heart upon God

This is what money will do

I encourage any of you discouraged about money right now (because I know there are a lot of people that are) to read Alma 4:6-9 and you might as well read the rest of the chapter to see how it progresses. :) The Lord really knows us, doesn't He?