Day 40 - Alma 34-36

Spiritual Thought:

"The teachings and testimonies of parents and other good people have an inevitable, inexorable effect. Those lessons are not lost on even the most wayward soul. Somewhere, somehow, they get recorded in the soul and may be called upon in a great moment of need. It was in such a moment that the young Alma remembered also to have heard my father prophesy. That prophecy may have been uttered in a day when Alma was taunting his father, or jeering at those who believed, or willfully denying the reality of revelation. It may have come at a time when his father assumed Alma did not care or hear or understand. Or it may have come so early in his life that his father might have thought he had forgotten… Now it was being called forth for the very protection it had intended to give… There will always be a great power – even latent, delayed, residual power – in the words of God we utter."

                (Jeffrey R. Holland, The Book of Mormon: It Begins with a Family, 97-98)

Daily Focus Scriptures to mark and ponder:

Alma 34: 32 - "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.
Alma 34:33 - "...therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end..."
Alma 34:34 - "...for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.

Parents should bear testimony to their children.

Alma 36 1, 30 - Begins and ends this part of his instruction with his testimony. Consider the following verses that relate to Alma’s testimony and the importance of sharing it with his children.

36:1–"I swear unto you . . ."

36:3–"Learn of me for I do know . . ."

36:4–"I know of myself . . ."

36:5– "God has made these things known unto me. . ."

36:26–"I have tasted . . . I have seen . . . I do know . . . The knowledge which I have is of God."

36:28–"I know he will raise me up . . ."

36:30–"Ye ought to know as I do know."

Daily Questions: 

Why is it important for a child to hear the testimony of his parents? What impact might the story of Alma’s conversion have on Helaman? When was the last time you took a child—one on one—and testified to him or her of your knowledge of the truth? Can you think of an experience when a parent’s testimony has changed your life?

For Kids:

Click here to listen to the song, "Teach me to Walk in the Light"

BOMING Picture:             Here is Alma giving counsel to his son Helaman

Food for Thought:  Heber J. Grant tells the following story:

“The Book of Mormon has a very warm place in my heart because of one of its chapters (Alma 36).  I had a wayward brother who took no interest whatever in the Church until he was between thirty-five and forty years of age. I received a letter from him, telling me that on account of [financial failures, he intended] to kill himself.

“He went out into the woods intending to kill himself; but he got to thinking what a cowardly, dastardly act it would be for him to leave his wife and children destitute. So, instead of killing himself, he knelt down and prayed: ‘O God, if there is a God.’  He got up weeping for joy, and he wrote me that he had become convinced of two things: that there is a God, and that there is a devil, one leading to life and the other to death. He sealed his letter, and then the influence came over him: ‘You have now ruined your brother (Heber had given him large sums of money which he lost), and now you are trying to make amends by telling him you have commenced to pray.’  He threw the letter into his trunk.  He wrote me letters every day for about a week, all landing in his trunk, but finally he mailed one..."

“I went out and bought him a Book of Mormon, went into my office, shut the door, and told the Lord I wanted to open the book to the chapter that would do a wayward and careless brother of mine the most good; and this is the chapter to which I opened [the thirty-sixth chapter of Alma]. Anyone who knows the contents of the book will admit that he cannot find another chapter comparable with the thirty-sixth chapter of Alma, nor more appropriate for sending to a wayward boy.

“…I love that chapter. Why? Because, when that wayward brother of mine read it, he wrote: ‘Heber, I do not know the gospel is true, but I pledge the Lord, if He ever gives me, as He gave Alma of old, a knowledge of the divinity of the gospel, that I will labor as Alma of old labored, to bring souls to a knowledge of the truth.’ And, thank the Lord, he obtained the knowledge, and thank the Lord also, he has kept his pledge.” (Heber J. Grant - Gospel Standards, p. 323-5)