Alma 49:1-15

49:1-15 – I have just a few minutes, and I wanted to hit some main points that could be learned from here. The Lamanites come upon the Nephites to fight and when they got to Ammonihah “how great was their disappointment; for behold, the Nephites had dug up a ridge of earth round about them, which was so high that the Lamanites could not cast their stones and their arrows at them.” Likewise, when the Lamanites left Ammonihah and went to the land of Noah to attack there “behold, to their astonishment, the city of Noah, which had hitherto been a weak place, had not, by the means of Moroni, become strong, yea, even to exceed the strength of the city of Ammonihah.” CM had prepared his people for battle, and here I thought that we could liken this to being spiritually prepared for the temptations and the trials that come with daily life. I have heard it taught before that if we choose in the beginning that we will not do something, when the opportunity presents itself, the decision is clear because we’ve already made it. Choosing to keep the commandments and doing so daily, gives us a set path to follow, we don’t have to make tons of decisions every day, “Do I drink alcohol? Do I watch this inappropriate movie?” It’s a no brainer to us, because it’s already been decided. Likewise, daily scripture study, daily prayer, taking the Sacrament, growing closer to the Savior when we have relative peace in our lives will prepare us for the time that we will be faced with more difficult choices, but it’s also vital to rely on our knowledge and love of God as a guide when we are in hard times because sometimes it seems to easy to fall back into the lies that Satan tells us and go with the ways of the world.