We’re coming up on the end of another year and having studied The Book of Mormon during Come Follow Me this year, I wanted to stop and appreciate the ancient American prophet who made it possible for us to have this volume of scripture. As such, here are three lessons I appreciate from the life of Mormon.
A Life of Surrender
His abridgement of the Nephite record was Mormon’s labor of love. All the while, his nation was falling into apostasy. He knew his life’s work wouldn’t be for his people, but he did it anyway. I admire the faith that it must have taken for him to pour his heart and soul into this volume of scripture, surrendering to his faith in God. He trusted that his life’s work wouldn’t be a waste and that as he followed the Lord’s directions.
My favorite scripture is Words of Mormon 1:7 in which he says, “And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.” This scripture was in reference to including the small plates in his record, but it’s applicable for the full book–Mormon had to trust that his life’s work would amount to something. He may have been a prophet, but it still took faith and surrender to put his heart into results he’d never see.
A Life of Loneliness
During the pandemic, I wrote about the isolation of Moroni, son of Mormon. While I maintain that Moroni was the champion of social isolation, Mormon was right behind him. This father and son duo lived in a time when their nation was becoming progressively wicked and vicious (sound familiar?). Sometimes I think our world has become wicked beyond belief–seriously, I can't imagine it getting worse without spiking my anxiety–but if you read the things that Mormon witnessed, it must have been lonely for a follower of Jesus Christ.
Our world may not be as wicked as Mormon’s, but it’s pretty heinous. And being surrounded by people who would divide us and hate each other. And with our interconnected world of social media and anger, it can be easy to withdraw and isolate. Despite that interconnectedness, it's a lonely world in which we live. But despite being surrounded by evil, Mormon loved his people and lived faithfully. What an example!
A Life of Grief
There’s a reason Mormon was able to write about faith, hope, and charity in the letter now published as Moroni 7. In a world of pain and wickedness, Mormon never failed to love his people, even when it was painful. Mormon was called to preach and prophesy to his people, but they actively rejected him. To say he must have felt discouraged would be an understatement. I can’t imagine the grief he felt when he realized that his people had chosen to take themselves beyond redemption.
In addition to the spiritual death of his nation, we can safely assume Mormon lost plenty of family members to physical death in the wars of his time. We know Moroni outlived him, but we don’t know anything about Mormon’s wife… but we know some of the horrific things the Lamanites did to the women they captured. And even if the men he served with were wicked, Mormon was full of charity, so their deaths would have elicited quite the complex string of emotions, to say the least.
Conclusion
As much as we know about Mormon from his record, I wish we knew more about how he stayed strong and faithful through such depressing circumstances in his life. Mormon had every reason to despair, and he definitely wept many times, but he refused to abandon his hope that was in Jesus Christ. How do you think he did it? How did he stay strong in a time of such awful wickedness?
Though President Nelson has taught us the importance of using the proper name of the Church, the world still often refers to us as "Mormon". That's quite the legacy of faith to live up to.
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