1:12-20 - Here Mormon tells us about the shift in ordinances, from the law of Moses to "the commandments which they had received from their Lord and their God, continuing in fasting and prayer, and in meeting together oft both to pray and to hear the world of the Lord." They were devout, dedicated themselves to becoming Christ-like, did what that entails and "there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people." We talked about this a little bit the other day. I love the the IM's quote of Elder Russell M. Nelson when he commented on this contention free state, saying, "Personal peace is reached when one, in humble submissiveness, truly loves God. Heed carefully his scripture: 'There was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.' Thus, love of God should be our aim. It is the first commandment- the foundation of faith. As we develop love of God and Christ, love of family and neighbor will naturally follow. Then will we eagerly emulate Jesus. He healed. Ho comforted. He taught, 'Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.' Through love of God, the pain caused by the fiery canker of contention will be extinguished from the soul. This healing begins with a personal vow: 'Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.' This commitment will then spread to family and friends and will bring peace to neighborhoods and nations. Shun contention. Seek godliness. Be enlightened by eternal truth. Be like-minded with the Lord in love and united with Him in faith. Then shall 'the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,' be yours, to bless you and your posterity through generations yet to come." I actually read this yesterday and I had a problem at work with a "client" who wasn't being very nice to one of my coworkers. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up being caught up in the middle of it, and my coworker and boss wanted to get into it with this guy and even went as far as to leave to go confront him, and as they were walking out I was like "no I don't think that's a good idea." Then they got onto my case, "why isn't it a good idea? He can't treat our staff like that!" Then they walked out the door to go make a scene. I knew, from experience dealing with hostile people, me being one of them for many years, that confronting that guy was going to get nothing accomplished except open up a worm hole of complaints and problems. Turns out that my boss went over there and just asked if everything was ok, and didn't get into it with him. My coworker was mad, she wanted her vindication, but she didn't get it, and she was not pleased with me when I told her that it wouldn't have accomplished anything. I thought, honestly, about this for a while yesterday, wondering if I was wrong, should they have been confrontational with this guy? Should my boss have "defended" my coworker to this guy? I didn't have the firm answer, then I read Elder Nelson's quote that said, "shun contention." That's when I realized that my instincts were right, let that sleeping dog lie. It was kind of validating for me. I could have sworn that I heard a blurb from HN yesterday where he completely justified my saying that happy people don't act like that, contentious, or difficult or hateful. The love of God in the hearts of the people led to a state where "there were no enyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, not any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God. There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God. And how blessed were they! For the Lord did bless them in all their doings." Oh ok, here's the quote from HN that I loved. He goes through this list of "negative confession" and says, "These things are all unnecessary, and by denying the negative, or course, it makes it positive. There's no problem here. All the vices represent the absence of some vital quality, not a positive contribution of any sort. For example, envy is what? Well, it's the absence of full self-achievement. That's your own lack again. Or strife is grabbing for something you lack, something in which you're defective. Or someone who's blocking you is your strife. Or, tumult is raising hell for lack of getting enough attention yourself, getting into things. Whoredoms is a very defective family life. Lying is an inadequacy of knowledge or recognition or underacheivement- they always take to lying. Lasciviousness- lack of sensitivity, lack of taste, lack of self-control. To lack all those lackings is to miss all that emptiness and frustration. It's simple algebra- two minuses add to plus here. You should be at peace with yourself and all the world. How could there be a happier people if you lacked all these things? They're all frustrations, you see. If you hadn't done any of them, you would be at peace with yourself and the world and feel good about everything. You couldn't feel happier." I loved this, what I took from it was "if you have peace within yourself, you can be at peace with the world and you'll miss all the emptiness and frustration that comes with wickedness." The IM included a chart entailing the different times throughout our human history in which these "Zion Society" times have and will exist. The IM has a very lengthy and excellent teaching on the phrase "There were no manner of -ites," but it's really long and I don't feel very well, so I'm just going to copy and paste it here. Enjoy.
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