followHIM - Alma 53-63 Part 2 • Dr. Justin Top • August 19-25 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

Dr. Justin Top continues applying the insights and strategies to help with personal battles through the War Chapters in Alma 53-63.SHOW NOTES/TRANSCRIPTSEnglish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM34ENFrench: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM34FRGerman: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM34DEPortuguese: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM34PTSpanish: https://tinyurl.com/podcastBM34ESYOUTUBEhttps://youtu.be/NeuJhlqU7dMALL EPISODES/SHOW NOTESfollowHIM website: https://www.followHIMpodcast.comFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookWEEKLY NEWSLETTERhttps://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletterSOCIAL MEDIAInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastTIMECODE00:00 Part II– Dr. Justin Top01:13 Alma 57:20 - The power of the youth02:27 Alma 58:1-11 - A fixed determination of faith to deliverance05:46 Alma 58:32 - Confidence vs. being overwhelmed06:15 Alma 58:38-41 - All stripling warriors wounded, none have perished09:14 The Sons of Mosiah end up saving their people in current wars13:11 Alma 59:8-13 - Better to prepare than repair16:33 Alma 60:1-14 - Angry letters from Moroni and Pahoran’s love22:32 Alma 60:28-33 - Righteous indignation and personal narratives26:38 Alma 61:1-9 - Pahoran’s generous response29:44 Alma 61:10 - Pahoran’s lessons for today33:46 Elder Bednar’s “And Nothing Shall Offend Them”37:01 Alma 60:14-15 - Struggle vs outcome42:52 Alma 62 Moroni’s response to Pahoran is about action45:15 Alma 60: 30-41 - Setbacks lead to comebacks49:54 Alma 62:48 - Post-traumatic growth51:26 Alma 63:10 - Shiblon dies and Corianton leaves on a ship52:04 Dr. Top’s major takeaways and testimony of Jesus56:16  End of Part II– Dr. Justin TopThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Part 2 with Dr. Justin Topp, Alma 53-63 Over Memorial Day weekend, I saw a bunch of wonderful stories. One of them, Hank, was about Elder Maxwell that you read. One of them showed President Nelson as officer in Korea, supervising MASH hospitals. A long time ago, there was a TV show called MASH, and I remember one time hearing something I never forgot, and it was the colonel, and he said something like this, all I remember is what they taught me in command school. Number one, in a war, young men die, and number two, doctors can't do anything about number one.

And I don't know why I remember that, but this is an astonishing event, and that's how they describe it, that none of the stripling warriors were perished, while a thousand others were slain. But the point for all of us, I guess, ends up in verse 27. Put your trust in God continually. The Abinadi's and the Job's and the others suffered in life, but that doesn't mean God isn't there. Another principle I get from this whole story, chapter 57 specifically, is the way we view our youth and the energy they can give. Verse 20, the army was about to give way. Sounds like the

adults were pretty tired. And then here comes this group of youth who gives so much energy to the adults. That's one thing we could draw out of this is in our own words and stakes, not to look at the youth as problems, right? Or as, man, if they would just not be youth anymore, that would be great. But see them as this great energy for the church that they have a lot to give. It's interesting that President Nelson used these very stories to say in 2018, I'm inviting every young woman and every young man between the ages of 12 and 18 in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to enlist in the youth battalion of the Lord to help gather Israel. Which is the greatest challenge, the greatest cause, the greatest work on earth today.

I'm glad you brought that up. Here's President Nelson saying the youth are going to help us do this and inviting them to be a modern group of stripling warriors. Chapter 58, we get another one of these similar types of stories. This is a little different than last time because the last story, the Nephites started out in this place of advantage and then were taken by surprise. And this one, it's different. They're really getting neglected.

They're not getting the supplies they need. They're not getting support from the government. And they're just hanging on by their fingernails, basically. In verse 6, and the Lamanites were sallying forth against us from time to time, resolving by stratagem to destroy us. Nevertheless, we could not come to battle with them because their retreats and their strongholds. And it came to pass that we did wait in these difficult circumstances for the space of many months, even until we were about to perish for the want of food. They're in a bad situation, losing ground. They're trying the best they can to hold on. Now, again, think about being like this in your life, being at these times in your life where you're just barely surviving. In verse

9, and now the cause of these are embarrassments or the cause of why they did not send more strength unto us we knew not. Therefore we were grieved and also filled with fear, lest by any means the judgments of God should come upon our land to our overthrow and utter destruction. A lot of discouragement here, but their way of dealing with it is really important. Therefore, we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies. Yea, and also give us strength that we might retain our cities and our lands and our possessions for the support of our people. So they're begging God. We don't know how this is going to go. We can't see how it's going

to get solved, but we're trusting you. And in the process of that, they get a spiritual confirmation. Yea, it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us. Yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls and did grant unto us great faith and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him. And we did take courage with our small force, which we had received, and we fixed with a determination to conquer our enemies and to maintain our lands and our possessions and our wives and our children, the cause of our liberty. Even though the external circumstances aren't good, they choose to make the best of it and focus on controlling the things that they can,

which is their faith. That spiritual witness turns into a fixed determination. I really love that little connection. I'm barely holding on here. Pour out my soul to God. He speaks assurance, peace, faith, and hope. And I turn that into a fixed determination to keep going. It's a great model on how to take on big time struggle. I think too, Hank and Justin, there's a lot of times in life when all of us feel like we're running out. We haven't got strength. We haven't running out, we haven't got strength,

we haven't got energy, we haven't got what it takes. And I think verse 11, I underlined, it could be one of the most beautiful verses in the war chapters. Assurance, deliverance, peace, faith, hope, deliverance. That's a lot of really wonderful words in just a short verse. That causes them to hang on and we get more of that in verse 32 our armies are small we can't maintain there's too many cities we're spread too thin but we trust in our god who has given us victory over those lands so we've had these victories in the past this chapter has another story of a great strategy where they lure the lamanites out and sneak back and take the city and so on. This is the constant story, battle after battle. And sometimes they feel confident and other times they're overwhelmed. After all these battles, still not a one of them. But behold, they have received many wounds. Nevertheless, they stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has made them free.

And they are strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day. Yea, they do observe to keep his statutes and his judgments and his commandments continually. And their faith is strong in the prophecies concerning that which is to come. This is the story of the stripling warriors. Again and again and again, they win when they shouldn't. They're outnumbered. They're not experienced. They have no business doing so well. I was in Washington, D.C. recently, and I went to the World War II memorial there on the Mall. And it's divided into two parts. There's the European theater

and the Pacific theater. And on the side of the Pacific theater, there's a quote that I think really applies well to the stripling warriors. It's actually a quote about the Battle of Midway. Now, if you know the Battle of Midway, this is one of those similar types of stories where, man, the United States had no right winning that battle. Way outnumbered, better technology, better forces. But a series of miracles come into play. The Allied forces are able to defeat the Japanese there, and it really, really changes the course of the war. And there's a quote in that memorial, and this is by an author named Walter Lord. It said, they had no right to win, yet they did. And in doing so, they changed the course of a war, even against the greatest of odds.

There is something in the human spirit, a magic blend of skill, faith, and valor that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory. And I would suggest to add to that, that it's not just the human spirit. It's when that human spirit comes in contact with divine spirit and the soul is able to communicate with the divine and to be nourished by God's love and grace and find that courage that helps them push through when it's hard. And that applies not just to battle, not just a physical battle, but to all of these struggles that we go through in our lives. Accessing the grace of God, that's the answer. Wow, Justin, thanks for bringing up Midway. There were some real miracles. The scout plane

whose radio was broken that found the American fleet but couldn't tell anybody about it, so it was delayed until he flew back. The code that the Americans sent out, the AF is having trouble with their water condensers, even though they weren't, but they thought that AF was what the enemy was using to describe Midway. It was such a stratagem and it worked. It's hard to look at that and not think they had some divine help with what happened at midway so i like that quotation justin john before we move on from the stripling warriors i wanted to talk about one thing and see what you both think about it it's something i've been thinking about over the years of reading the book of mormon it seems to me justin you can correct me, that these stripling warriors changed the trajectory of the war. That Mormon at least is highlighting things were heading in the wrong direction. And then this group came in and really turned it around. Even Captain Moroni getting this letter gives him a boost of energy.

And I go back to Ammon, Aaron, Omner, and hymni saying we want to go on a mission to the lamanites and everyone's saying you don't want to go on a mission to the lamanites it'd be better to kill them than to go preach to them and yet because those sons of mosiah went on that mission they were really if you think about it this way they were really saving themselves they were saving their own children by going on that mission. Because the way it unfolds is that the children of those they converted or taught end up saving the Nephites. Be thinking about that. And I'll tell a quick story that I think both of you already know. And that is that when Parley P. Pratt went on a mission to Toronto, Canada, his wife was sick. He didn't really want to go, I don't think, but he went anyway.

And he baptized John Taylor and a group of saints up there. Well, when John Taylor moves to Kirtland, Parley P. Pratt has lost some confidence or some faith in Joseph Smith. And it's John Taylor who kind of grabs Party P. Pratt and says, get back on board here. So when Party P. Pratt goes on his mission, he's actually saving himself because he converts John Taylor, who then turns his life around. Maybe there's a principle in all of this, neither of you can comment on it that what at first looks like a sacrifice to go on a mission becomes an investment in saving yourself or saving your children or your grandchildren. Any thoughts on that? Yeah, actually God is the master story writer. He creates these incredible journeys for each of us and you can't ever tell how it's going to end.

What happens at one point may show up again later on. And one of the things that I've loved about being a chaplain is being able to walk with people in their journeys and see this type of thing. Seeds that were planted way back when that seemed like nothing then come to fruition later on and have incredible impact. This is what it means to have faith in the Lord, is that every little thing can matter. Things that we don't even expect can bless our lives in ways we can't anticipate. This is God's grace.

The scriptures say that all things work together for our good. And I don't think we fully grasp or appreciate what that all things part means. But God is heavily invested in bringing about our story of grace. I love the little, the great chess game John and I have called it. This 5D chess where all the pieces have their own agency and you somehow play in this game. I hope that people listening, don't skip over, don't skim over these chapters. Look for these kind of messages because we are all in a spiritual warfare, if nothing else. Look at how, in verse 40, they're strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day.

It's what we've been asked to do, is to remember. Justin, with that, walk us through the rest of the war chapters here. There's an interesting back and forth. Yeah. Moroni's frustrated. I want to bring out, in verse 1 of chapter 59, this is after Moroni finishes reading the letter. And it says his reaction is mixed, but he's really inspired by the story of the 2000 stripling warriors. And he tells the armies and the people and it rejuvenates.

And we know that these kind of stories have the power to do that. I mean, you remember from World War II, just the picture of the flag being planted on Iwo Jima, the country was getting tired out from the war. And I can only imagine how bad it was for the Nephites in this situation. They use that picture to really regenerate the spiritual energy of the country as a whole. And certainly this story of the stripling warriors has that effect on Nephi and his people. What I wish i could be on a fly on a wall for was the people of ammon when they got those letters man alive can you imagine the gratitude to god on hearing that none of their sons had been killed it's mind-blowing people who already had incredible faith,

having that confirmed, really powerful. The rest of chapter 59 sets up what you said about Captain Moroni getting frustrated. It's worse. They start, you know, losing more ground again, and they're not getting provisions, and you can only hang on by your fingernails so long. Moroni finally gets to the point where he's had it. He's done. In verse 8, he talks about this, that they're losing ground. And their armies were so numerous that the remainder of the people of Nephiha were obliged to flee before them. They're fleeing before the army of the Lamanites. And they came even and joined the army of Moroni, right? So they're fleeing. And here's this verse we talked about before.

And now as Moroni had supposed that there should be men sent to the city of Nephiha to the assistance of the people to maintain that city. And knowing that it was easier to keep the city from following into the hands of the Lamanites than to retake it from them, he supposed that they would easily maintain that city. Moroni, he was under the assumption that Nephi was in good shape, that they had been reinforced and they should have enough to maintain their city, but no reinforcements had ever come. And so they lost the city and that causes problems because now it's harder to get it back. Such a great principle in that verse there.

And you mentioned the President Benson quote, when it comes to the law of chastity, it's better to prepare and prevent than it is to repair and repent. I think it's the same principle as an ounce of preparation is better than a pound of cure. This would be a lot easier if we could keep the city from falling and think of the time and the resources, the blood, the treasure, however we put it, we put it to try to retake a city than to just prevent it from being taken in the first place. And think of that spiritually. There's some great applications in there. Spiritually and mentally, emotionally, relationships. I mean, all of those things, being proactive is much better than being reactive. I like that. We ready for 60?

Yep. Now, Moroni is frustrated. He's had it and he's going to let Pahoran, who's the chief judge, he's going to let him know his frustration. Now, I love this little back and forth between Moroni and Pahoran because the psychologist in me just loves to dissect this and see what's going on inside their heads. Now this goes back, we sort of introduced the idea of lenses with Moroni and Amaron, but now we're going to see how Captain Moroni's, his own frustration, how it's going to really distort his lenses. And we talk about Captain

Moroni. He's an amazing guy, but he's also still human. And that frustration, he's really going to take it out on Pahoran. As we look at this, we're going to see in his letter, some of the common mental distortions that we make that cause problems for us. In this letter, he talks to Pahoran about his frustration. So Let's pick it up in verse 3. But behold, were this all we had suffered, we would not murmur or complain. But behold, great has been the slaughter among our people. Yea, thousands have fallen by the sword, while it might have otherwise been, if ye had rendered unto our armies sufficient strength and succor for them. Yea, great has been your neglect towards us. Two things happening.

Number one, we're suffering. So the focus becomes on your own suffering. That's a really common, natural thing for us to do. When things get hard, that's all we're suffering. So the focus becomes on your own suffering. That's a really common natural thing for us to do. When things get hard, that's all we can see. We can't see past our own frustration. But what starts to happen is we start to change this narrative and say, and it's your fault. And it's your, we got to have somebody to blame for it. So it's your fault that we're suffering.

That's frustration and it's focus on your on your frustration and blaming it on others. That's one of the common things that we do. In verse 7, can you think to sit upon your thrones in a state of thoughtless stupor while your enemies are spreading the work of death around you? You don't care. He's making an assumption here. You're sitting back there relaxing. While we're suffering, you have it easy. Have you ever done this in your brain with somebody? Like, oh, you know, you just don't even care about me. Verse 9.

But behold, this is not all. Ye have withheld your provisions from them, insomuch that they have fought and bled out their lives because of their great desires, which they had for the welfare of this people. Yea, and this they have done when they were about to perish with hunger In other words, you did that on purpose. You ever use that in a relationship argument? You did that on purpose. This is what our brains do when we get all worked up.

You tell yourself a story and you're convinced it's the truth. That emotional narrative becomes our absolute truth. And it goes on and you can see at the end of verse 10 and in verse 11, the narrative is because you've done all these things, you're bad. That's the next step. Our brains tend to oversimplify and make things, people are either all bad or all good. So because you did this thing, behold, could ye suppose that you could sit on your thrones and because of the exceeding goodness of God, you could do nothing and he would deliver you? You have all these ideas that you're so high and mighty and you're going to be okay. And then in verse 12, we get this mind reading. I know what you're thinking high and mighty and you're going to be okay. And then in verse 12,

we get this mind reading. I know what you're thinking. I know what you're thinking. Do you suppose that because so many of our brethren have been killed, it is because of their wickedness? Oh, you're thinking they deserve this now. This is kind of ridiculous stuff, but Moroni has just worked up and he is an amazing person, but he still has to deal with this. And that's going to all lead. This is step-by-step that leads to eventually in verse 13 and 14 and more towards the end. And because of this, you deserve punishment. And if you don't change, I'm going to be the one that gives it to you from a psychologist point of view. I mean, just look at how this is, this happens to us all the time. Our brains work against us and cause problems.

It's fascinating that the facts that he has, that they have not received provisions, turns into a full-out story. It's hard. I can sense you're just, you're hesitating to make judgments on Captain Moroni. So am I. But at the same time, all he knows is the provisions haven't come and it's turned into a full out narrative. Like you said, that he wholeheartedly believes you can almost see him escalating as he's writing. It starts out with, I am wondering why you're being neglectful to us. And then at the end, I will come and slay you. I will come kill you. Going,

whoa, that escalated. I love this about Captain Moroni. I love that he struggles with this as well. Because if you were to put yourself just in his perspective, then he is coming from this place of righteousness and being neglected. And he's justified in his anger. But the truth is, he just doesn't have the big picture. And all of us get like that sometimes too and i love reading this story because somebody is as amazing as captain moroni can struggle with this and i'll have times where i'll like get in an argument with my wife or one of the kids and then later on i'll be like where did that come from i don't even really think that way yeah i love that moroni goes right to thrones.

We all know how they feel about the king men, but you guys are sitting back there on your thrones, or you could say recliners, while we are out here doing this. I see thrones in verse 7, verse 11, verse 21. He accuses of them just sitting back there on their thrones. What an amazing insight. It's like a subtle jab. You're becoming like the king men. Yeah, verse 21, he accuses of them just sitting back there on their thrones. What an amazing insight. It's like a subtle jab. You're becoming like the king, man. Yeah, I like that.

That we just got away from. Yeah. One of the other things that happens is when you get so frustrated and the other person is wrong and they're doing bad and you start to elevate yourself a little bit, right? In verse 28, it's very much, and God is on my side in this. Yea, behold, I do not fear your power nor your authority, but it is my God whom I fear. It is according to his commandments that I do take my sword to defend the cause of my country. You know, we often find ourselves in this state of what we consider righteous indignation that can sometimes blind us in some ways to the interaction and the relationship and other perspectives. Justin, I think you're right.

This happens in relationships all the time. I remember being newly married and thinking my wife should be able to read my mind. You should be able to know why I'm so angry and frustrated and why are you not responding to this? And all of a sudden I come up with this narrative. You don't love me. You don't care about me. And then I find out, oh no, she just had her phone off. Oh. Your brain brings in all these examples. You always this, and you never this. And none of that's true. But in that moment, it really feels true. What do you do with that, Justin, when your emotions are taking you? I mean, first you have to notice it's even happening.

Yeah. The answer to this is grace. And that takes training, to train yourself to have grace for others, have grace for yourself and receive grace from others and from God in this situation. We talk about this with relationships with others, but this story plays out the same with our relationship with God. And sometimes we're frustrated with God and we do all these things in our narrative with him. This is what leads us to greater doubts and feeling distance from the church and from our relationship with God, this all sets up so nicely because Pahoran in chapter 61 is the ideal response. To answer your question, how do we deal with this? Well, we learn to think like Pahoran does. Because if Pahoran really was the

kind of guy that Moroni paints him out to be, he could very easily be really upset about this. Right? Like, how dare you? I'm your boss. I picture something like this happening in the military and I would not go over well if you spoke to your superior officer like this. It would not go over well. No, no. If you go to Alma 60 verse 33, he even in his emotion says he's getting

revelation. The Lord says to me, if those whom you have appointed your governors do not repent of their sins and iniquities, you will go up to battle against them. Yeah, I wonder how often that happens. Revelation is more than just a feeling. My testimony of the church, though it comes from feeling the spirit, it's really balanced by a lot of other things besides how does it make me feel. It makes sense. And there's a certain degree of light and grace that comes with it. And that's something we have to always be careful for because our brains our natural man minds do trick us sometimes yeah sometimes your anger can feel like uh righteous indignation or something yeah the lord is telling me i'm right is he and the lord's like moroni let off your steam i'm gonna

let you know what's really going on back there pahoran's been kicked out he's not even there hopefully the lord lets him know in time that the situation is not what you thought it was. I would say too that it kind of is. It's just not who he thought it was. There are plenty of people who deserve this. And what Pahoran's going to do is redirect this zeal to where it needs to be rather than get all offended. And it reminds me of Paul, who's fighting against the Christians. And then God says, let's redirect you a little bit. And now he goes with a zeal. Same principle here with Captain Moroni.

Justin, how do we deal with this? Is that what comes next? Pahoran shows us a great example. I mean, his response is full of grace. We can really learn how to respond when somebody comes at us like this, how to respond in a way that's really helpful. Because we saw with Ammaron and Captain Moroni what doesn't work. Let's take a look here at what he says. I, Pahoran, who am the chief governor of this land, do send these words unto Moroni, the chief captain over the army.

Behold, I say unto you, Moroni, that I do not joy in your great affliction. Yea, it grieves my soul. In other words, empathy. First thing is, I acknowledge your experience, and I'm really sad about it. And he's not diving right into, how dare you? What about my perspective? What about me? What about me?

Right? It's like really feeling this sorrow for what they're going through. There's some validation there too, right, Justin? Absolutely. Instead of pushing back on that emotion, he's pulling it a little bit and saying, okay, I see that and that's okay. Verse 3, but behold, there are those who do joy in your afflictions, yea, in so much that they have risen up in rebellion against me. And also those of my people who are free men, yea, and those who have risen up are exceedingly numerous. The next thing he does is he acknowledges this is a problem.

There is a problem going on right now. It doesn't minimize, doesn't diminish. This is a problem that needs to be addressed. Then he goes on to explain, this is my perspective of the problem. And he talks about how they've been driven out. They've taken over Zarahemla and Pahoran's been hiding at this point. And he's trying to gather forces together to support him, but he still doesn't have enough to retake the judgment seat. Explaining his own perspective. Verse 9, I like this. He says, and now in your epistle you have censured me.

You've been pretty harsh. But it mattereth not, I am not angry. But do rejoice in the greatness of your heart. So in other words, he acknowledges, yeah, okay, you came at me kind of hard. But he says, but I know you. And expresses confidence. Because I know you, I'm not offended. How many times do we need to do that, right?

Need to remind ourself, oh, wait, this person I'm talking to. How many times do we need to do that? We need to remind ourselves, oh wait, this person I'm talking to is a good person who cares about me. Whether it's a spouse or a family member or our narrative gets all worked up, but we need to be reminded, hey, they actually are on my side here. He states his commitment. I, Pahoran, and this is his response to exactly the way Moroni said it in his, I, Pahoran, do not seek for power, save only to retain my judgment seat, that I may preserve the rights and liberties of my people.

My soul standeth fast in that liberty in the which God hath made us free. He says, hey, this is what I stand for here. I'm committed to this. And then from this point on, every verse in the rest of this chapter, this is where it gets amazing. I went through and I circled all the times I saw the word we or us. Moroni went into it like it's going to be me against you. But now Pahoran invites Moroni to join with him. And now behold, we will resist wickedness, even unto bloodshed. Verse 11, we would not shed the blood of our brethren if they would not rise up in rebellion against us. Verse 12, we would subject ourselves. So all of a sudden, it's not who's right. It's let's figure this out together. Verse 14,

let us resist them with our swords. And then this is also symbolic of how Christ comes in and how his grace comes in and wraps us in his loving arms. Go back to the example of Paul who's resisting God and fighting and he finds out that he's wrong. And you could picture God who comes into his life and says, hey, let's do this together now. Let's go together and solve this problem. And what happens to Paul? He becomes this amazing advocate for Christianity and does amazing things. This chapter from Pahoran teaches us so much about the grace of God. And if we can copy this, use these principles in our lives, think of all the conflict, internal and external, we could avoid by following his example. I think about a parent with an angry teenager, right? Chapter 60 comes

at you in your face and to respond with empathy. And then look, we're on the same team. I think Pahoran is a great example of a very calm response to a very angry accusation. I have a tendency, I don't know about other of you, but if someone comes at me with an angry accusation, I usually escalate the anger. But this calm response diffuses the situation. He says, look, we're on the same team. I promise. I'm not on a throne. I'm on a desk with a squeaky chair. I'd love that. I rejoice in the greatness of your heart that he's able to read that and go, Marone, what a great heart. He doesn't understand what's going on here, but I love this man's heart.

And then thank you for pointing that out, how it becomes we. This is us. We'd say to my kids sometimes, my wife and I, this isn't us against you. This is all of us against Satan. We are on the same team, you know. Yeah. It reminds me of a story that my wife has told in a talk for church before, but she tells this story of being at the mall with one of the kids and we call her Jack. She wanted to go into one of the stores. Of course, now it's time to go home. She goes into this having a tantrum there

on the floor because she wanted to go into that store. And it was not a little tantrum. It was a full-on tantrum. I don't know how you would respond in that situation. For me, I'd try and reason with her. In that situation, it's not going to work for her. She's worked up. I'd try and reason with her. And then I'd try and be firm. Well, you come right now or this or that.

And then maybe get child protective services called on me. Maybe I would be more likely to give in. Okay, whatever. Just stop complaining. Stop your tantrum. But my wife, she pulled up a chair and sat down next to her. So she's sitting there screaming on the floor and my wife sat there and every once in a while would like stroke her back a little bit and

they're waiting until she's ready. And finally she calms down. The whimpers die down. My wife whispers something in her ear and she hops right up, takes my wife by the hand and they go. And I wonder how many times we're like that with God. We're in our anger and our frustration and we have our ways of seeing things, but God's always there waiting, waiting until we can get in this place where we can hear him and take him by the hand, that's his grace. I'm sure both of you remember way back in October of 2006, almost 18 years ago, Elder Bednar gave a talk called, And Nothing Shall Offend Them. This is a great talk to go read if you want to this week. He mentions this exchange between Moroni and Pahoran. And then he says this, one of the greatest indicators of our own spiritual maturity is revealed in how we respond to the weaknesses,

the inexperience, and the potentially offensive actions of others. A thing, an event, or an expression may be offensive, but you and I can choose not to be offended. And to say with Bajoran, it mattereth not. It's so hard. John, this is so easy for you to be just so calm in the face of anger. No, I just turned my mic off. It does not come naturally to me. It's something I've been, you know, I'm hoping a weakness that can become a strength one day.

He mentions that Elder Maxwell called us as members of the church. We are the clinical material for each other's growth and development. We bump into each other and people in the ward might say something offensive. I say something offensive. The bishop says something offensive. And what are we going to do at those moments? Such an inspired part of the Book of Mormon. John, do you want to comment on how natural it is for you? You know more about this than I do, Justin, but sometimes people have to let off steam. And

sometimes you'll find that they come up with their own solution once they get all the steam out and they feel like they've been heard. And then they, maybe I should, when you're, yeah, that's a good idea. But first they had to let off all that steam. I love this story for so many reasons. And I love that Mormon would put it in there because he gives this tribute to Moroni, names his own son Moroni, and he wants us to see Captain Moroni as well. Here's the authentic Moroni, unedited. Here he comes. Justin, how do we do this better in our family relationships? You must be the pro at it.

You've got your wife and you have 11 children. You're a trained psychologist. You're a trained psychologist. You're a chaplain. When you practice enough, it's just a piece of cake. Yeah. There's a phrase that we find all through the Book of Mormon, and that is this idea of being stirred up to remembrance. This applies to our battles with ourselves as well, that internal part of ourselves that's maybe not helpful. The best we can do is keep trying, stirring ourselves up, and understand that God's grace is there to help us be better, to help us be more graceful and loving to other people.

But it's also there to help us when we're not. We don't have to be perfect. And there are times that God doesn't take away our challenges and he just lets us struggle. We quote Ether's version where I give unto men weakness that they may be humble. If men come unto me, I will show them their weakness and make the weak things become strong unto them, right? But Paul has a version of this that's a little bit different. and that is in 2 Corinthians 13. Paul says, I go before the Lord and ask him to take away my weakness, and God's like, nope. Yeah, I'm not going to. And he says, I'm going to let you struggle with this because

my strength is made perfect in weakness. What an interesting thing to say. Sometimes it's more about the struggle than it is about the outcome for us. What can we do? We continue to work. We acknowledge our weakness. We seek the grace of God, seek to have grace for others and for ourselves, and know that when we don't, the grace still applies for us and is still helping us push us towards a better relationship with him. I've heard it said before that a successful marriage has two very good forgivers. You get practice at forgiving,

a lot of practice at forgiving each other. John, do you think Captain Moroni went to Mormon after this is published and says, really, of all the letters you had? I know, I think it Moroni went to Mormon after this is published and says, really? Of all the letters? I know. I think it's a federal offense to read other people's mail, but here we are. We've got these letters. We've got Amoron and Moroni, and they're letting each other have it. And you're a child of hell. And see on the battlefield. And wow, what a fun book. Captain Moroni is sure passionate. Justin, I love what you showed me here. I'm doing that. I'm going through all the us and we and our, and what a great insight. Moroni, I am with you in this. Pahoran is saying to Moroni, thanks for sharing that.

That's really good. Same team. Look at 14 and 15 let us resist evil whatsoever evil we cannot resist with our words okay diplomacy first such as rebellions and dissensions let us resist them with our swords okay if that's what it comes to why are we fighting that we may retain our freedom that we may rejoice in i love this phrase. And then there's a phrase in 15, one of those things that's put on a wood plaque on the wall or something. Whoa, what a phrase.

The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Freedom. And that's what they're fighting for. Not to force everybody to worship God the way they want, but for the liberty that they can have the privilege of their church and they can worship God. I love that. Amazing insight. Did you guys know that Abraham Lincoln used to write angry letters and then he would put them in his desk drawer? He would never send them. So when he's really upset then he would put them in his desk drawer. He would never send them. So when he's really upset, he would write what he called a hot letter. And then they found these in his drawer after he never sent them. He needed to get it out there, say what needs to be said.

And then, yeah, I probably shouldn't send that. You know, that'd make a great app. Nowadays with email and texts sometimes you send them too quick so you should have like an app that says okay you can't send this for five days or whatever to make sure you don't regret what you wrote that's a great app idea hey can i read an abraham lincoln quotation yes we have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven we have been preserved these many years in peace of prosperity we have grown Yes. There's one of the letters I'm glad he sent. John, from that quote, I thought of the fourth verse of the Star-Spangled

Banner. It's sad we only sing the first verse because there's this line in the fourth verse. Oh, thus be it ever when free men shall stand between their loved homes and the war's desolation, blessed with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land raise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation and don't forget god yeah and conquer we must when our cause it is just and this be our motto and god is our trust this is what's always bugged me about sporting events the the Star Spangled Banner is a Q&A. We sing the Q and then we never do the A. The people in the war are asking us the question, does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave or the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Question mark, play ball. It should end, here's the answer, and this be our motto and God is our trust and the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave or the land of the free and the home of the brave! We rarely answer the question, except on Follow Him, where today we answer the question posed by verse 1. When we buried my dad, the flag draped over his casket there, and the veterans came and played taps. Oh, man. Did a salute with the rifles.

I looked over on Honeycutt Road, and there was this electrical crew there with a little basket, the crow's nest thing. And they were all standing, kind of reverently watching this happen. They didn't know who it was from a distance, but I thought we're giving dad a send off here. It was touching. It's beautiful. Absolutely. All right, Justin, walk us through the rest of this. Chapter 62 is Moroni's response to Pahoran's letter, and his response is all about action. Now, at first, you can imagine how relieved he is. And think about how healing this has got to be for him, who's lost faith in his government, to see that he's still being led by a man of faith. I wonder if there's another letter after this,

where he said, hey, sorry about that. I was in a mood. Yeah, we'll throw a Moroni a bone here and not put that one in. This is the happy ending to this story. Captain Moroni, he's encouraged. The whole momentum changes and now Moroni is motivated and we get the title of Liberty, the sequel. This is the sequel version of the same story that happened where Captain Moroni says, well, I can't pull any forces away from the war to help him out. So he goes and he raises the

standard of liberty around. He's holding this standard up and reminding the people of why they fight. But I would imagine that he's also spreading the news about the stripling warriors and he's changing the attitude toward the war in so much that people are willing to enlist. They're like, okay, we've got to do this. And they remember again how important what they're doing is. He's able to gather an army, go kick the king men out of Zarahemla, reinstate Pahoran. And not only that momentum keeps going beyond that, in that now they're able to take these people who've joined in the cause and reinforce the war effort in other places. This is where we see a fizzled end to the major war section. Not that there's not battles or

anything, but now Mormon's focus is going to shift away from these battles significantly, really is because all these bad things happened, these failures, this frustration, but it becomes a catalyst for change and growth, which then leads to this period of general peace and prosperity and where the people remember what's important. That's chapter 62 for him. I don't know if he listens to the show, but my friend Justin Suha says, setbacks lead to comebacks. And that's what's happened here.

Absolutely. The prosperity that comes not only culminates in Pahoran getting put back in power and the armies being strengthened, but we also find in this chapter that Teancum sneaks in, and he executes, basically, Ammaron, the king of the Lamanites, who's really the driving force behind this big, large-scale war. That's going to really put an end to this level of aggression from the Lamanites.

But think about how long this has gone on. If you look at your footnotes from start to end, this is a decade plus long war. I mean, this is going on. And you remember maybe from Vietnam or from the Gulf War, which wasn't even at our doorstep necessarily, but how tired the country gets of war and how it affects things. But imagine having that threat around you all the time. It's got to have an impact. So not only do you have economic impact of the war, but you've got these soldiers who are coming back impacted by what they've seen, and that's going to affect their family life and so on. And so there's this really fascinating verse in verse 41 that talks about how this long conflict has really affected people. But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites, many had become hardened.

Because of the exceedingly great length of the war. And many were softened because of their afflictions in so much that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depths of humility. What a fascinating scripture. The same experience can have different effects on different people at different times, and it can really disrupt the soul, either in a good way or a bad way. The Come Follow Me manual says, put a raw egg and a potato in boiling water to help you think about how you can choose to either be softened or hardened by your trials. Justin, I love that verse. Seems that Mormon might be saying, you have a choice.

You have a choice to make when you're going through terribly long, difficult trials. Are you going to be hardened? And it seems like hardened is the default, right? If you don't do anything, you'll probably get hardened. You'll probably get angry, but you can choose to be softened. You can choose to humble yourself. That's hard to do. What Justin said too about these guys going home now, I love the

veterans who have served. And I think they all handle it in different ways. And some of them have seen such horrific things and they compartmentalize it and put it away. Some are able to talk about it. My dad would tell you everything, but use that grace that's so available to help you process that and move forward. I would add here, we look at this verse and it's easy to make it this dichotomy like, oh, you can either be hardened or you can be softened. But that's not the end of the journey. The story is bigger than just, oh, the war hardened me. And we see this with veterans all the time who come back and they carry incredible burdens that they never expected. It would be amazing if signing up and

protecting your country was good enough to make you a hero, but man, it can change you. And that's not just true with veterans. I mean, there are people who have been abused and have different challenges in their life and does it harden them? Well, yeah. And I don't want this verse to seem like, oh, you're bad if you let things harden you, because that's not the end of the story. We read this all through the Book of Mormon, of people whose hearts are hardened can become softened through the preaching of the Word

and through some of the things we've talked about, like getting it out in the open, seeking healing from it, finding good leadership, all these things that we've talked about in these chapters about the struggles that we deal with, they apply. It's okay if you're hardened because of something,

but don't stay there. Seek the incredible healing, softening grace of Jesus Christ to overcome that. The conjunction that Mormon uses is many were hardened because of the exceedingly great length of the war. He doesn't say, but many were softened. He says, and many were softened. That could be someone who was hardened and then softened. Or in different aspects of our life, you can be hardened in some areas and softened. I mean, this is the journey of life and why it's so amazing is all the complicated factors that we rub up against. that they have learned profound lessons through this. They are getting more rich, stronger,

more prosperity, but they're not prideful. They're not slow to remember God. They remember the great things the Lord has done. I'm trying to get into Mormon's head here, but he seems to be finishing with, oh, that was a long time. But there's some good here at the end. Absolutely. Optimism about, hey, this was hard for us, but there's hope good here at the end absolutely optimism about hey this was hard for us but there's hope and a good future going forward 63 makes me nervous we talk about how because of their faith and their courage that helped them through the the struggles now we have this sort of happy ending and it's of course not the, but it's a happy ending, a period of prosperity. Helaman goes back to his job preaching the gospel. He then passes the records along to his son. And we hear about this expansion, migration of the Nephites and settling new areas.

We read about Hagoth and the ships and settling in other places. We may consider this as a form of post-traumatic growth. Because of the struggle that's been going on and they came out on the other side, now we see this growth that comes and the prosperity that comes because they had to step up and trust in the grace of God and now they're reaping the benefits of that. What a great phrase, post-traumatic growth it's fun that we spent some time with alma talking to his sons helaman shiblon and corianton and they're all mentioned here that shiblon died in verse 10 corianton went off on a ship we hope he lived happily ever after we don't hear from him again and then the things were passed on to to helaman son of helaman it's interesting that shiblon who is the brother of helaman is the one who

passes the records on almost like helaman's maybe too tired right let me take care of this for you records division your records division i'm high priest division right now. Justin, we have covered a lot of time and material and stories. If I'm at home and I'm listening to the podcast, I've got my scriptures open, or maybe I'm on my commute, or maybe I'm walking across campus. What are my major takeaways? What are you hoping I do differently? Struggle, conflict, internal or external, is a normal, natural part of life. And though we try and avoid it as much as possible, it's going to happen. How we embrace that, how we receive that and deal with it from a place of moral courage, that's what really matters. And the most important source for us to seek that moral courage is through our Savior Jesus Christ, the grace of God in our lives. And we access that through obedience,

through faith, and through humbling ourselves and asking for it. We hear these stories of victory over insurmountable odds, and the same principles apply to us in our life, in our struggles. And whatever struggle it is, if we will reach out for the grace of God and be willing to receive what he has for us, we'll find greater courage to face those struggles and greater insight and endurance, strength to get through, even if we can't get around the challenges that come in our life. Not only survive, but thrive. I think you've taught us a lot about that today. John, I know these are your favorite chapters. You've written the book on it. You and Mormon both. What a great day. To have a Navy chaplain here that served for that many years and talked to people. I'm so thrilled, Justin,

that you would come. What a resource. Thank you for showing us stuff here today. Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed the conversation and especially the chapters that we've read. I get pretty passionate about it. Yeah, it was wonderful. With that, we want to thank Dr. Justin Topp for being with us today. We want to thank our executive producer, Shannon Sorenson, our sponsors, David and Verla Sorenson, and we always remember our founder, Steve Sorenson. Join us next week. We have a new book, The Book of Helaman, coming up on Follow Him. Before you skip to the next episode, I have some important information.

This episode's transcript and show notes are available on our website, followhim.co. That's followhim.co. On our website, you'll also find our two free books, Finding Jesus Christ in the Old Testament and Finding Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Both books are full of short and powerful quotes and insights from all our episodes from the Old and New Testaments. The digital copies of these books are absolutely free. You can watch the podcast on YouTube. Also, our Facebook and Instagram accounts have videos and extras you won't find anywhere else.

If you'd like to know how you can help us, if you could subscribe to, rate, review, and comment on the podcast, that will make us easier to find. Of course, none of this could happen without our incredible production crew. David Perry, Lisa Spice, Jamie Nilsson, Will Stoughton, Crystal Roberts, Ariel Cuadra, and Annabelle Sorensen. Whatever questions or problems you have, the answer is always found

in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Turn to Him. Follow Him.