So I saw a scripture a little different the other day. I think I stumbled onto the only time the word “resolution” is mentioned in the scriptures (at least Gospel Library search couldn’t find any others). I’d been thinking about resolutions and what mine were going to be this year – that’s probably why the word stuck out to me when I saw it. It’s in Alma 47:6, and it’s the first time that you really hear about Lamanite dissenters. Nephite dissenters (like Amalickiah’s band) you hear about all the time – but this is the first (maybe only) time you hear about a Lamanite split off. They have left because they refused to go to battle against the Nephites as their king had commanded. Now, they are not going to go join the Nephites, but they were serious enough about all this that they had appointed a king over themselves named Lehonti, and gathered together to prepare themselves to do battle. Verse 6 says that they were “fixed in their minds with a determined resolution that they would not be subjected to go against the Nephites.” This doesn’t sound like some whimsical, “I’m going to get in shape” type of resolution. They are serious enough about it that they are willing to put their lives on the line for it – they are preparing to do battle.
So I got to thinking about how seriously I take my resolutions. There are obviously some that matter way more than others. That’s usually what has killed the lesser ones -- “it’s just not worth the effort” at some point. But that can’t be all of them, otherwise I’m stuck… and sinking – not conscientiously moving forward and making progress, just floating ang flowing wherever life and circumstance take me down the course of least resistance. Nobody ever became more like Christ that way. And a whole lot of people have become things they never wanted to be that way. I think everyone feels like they have got to take hold of the things they can control – the ones that really matter – and choose their course.
After having made that decision, and being all in about it, things should be easier. But that’s not the story Alma 47 tells. In fact, by the very next chapter they are marching to battle against the Nephites – the one thing they were willing to risk their lives not to do. So I got to thinking about how they got there so quickly. They may have wrongfully assumed that the only way they could be “subjected to go against the Nephites” was by force – so they gathered to “Onidah,… the place of arms” (47:5) and prepared their defense. You know the story though, Amalickiah’s cunning plan is much more subtle. A clever ruse, two deceptive murders, and a serious publicity campaign later and he has won their hearts and incited their anger – they have turned a full 180 degrees. He has united their hearts for his evil purpose even though it was originally decidedly against their own. By the time the story is over there has been mass carnage among these Lamanites. Wow – the one time the word “resolution” is used and they can’t even keep it a whole chapter. What can I learn from their story to avoid the same fate for my resolutions?
Resolutions are nothing more or less than serious goals, right? It follows that the most important goals we can set are the ones move us forward in the most important ways. Nothing is more important, more central to the purpose of this life than walking the covenant path, preparing to meet our Father in Heaven by becoming more like His Son, Jesus Christ. While it is a well-defined path, my next step on it is an individual and personal thing. The Church has effectively said with the Children and Youth Initiative: “God will tell you personally what you need to do to become more like Jesus.” And He does. Most of the time these promptings come in still small ways, though, and it is our responsibility to place the exclamation points behind them. We decide to fix our determination on following them or to let them blow by. Like Oliver had to, we must answer the question: “What greater witness can [we] have than from God?” (D&C 6:23)
When our mind has been made up, when we’ve heard Heaven’s voice and fixed our resolve, that’s big. It really is! The story of Lehonti’s group (in Alma 47) says we’re still going to need to be on our toes though.
The most effective angle of attack is not usually head on. As a dedicated fan of high school wrestling, I’ve seen many great, full speed, committed attacks that were thwarted simply because they were head-on – straight into the power of an opponent’s defense. Amalickiah, and Satan, seem to know this too. Their carefully angled approach doesn’t meet the stern resistance of Lehonti’s force. They slide in undetected in this story and mass carnage results. How could these Lamanites have more carefully guarded the angles? “Pray always” the scriptures answer, “That ye may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work” (D&C 10:5). If Lehonti would have been a praying man he could have been alerted. If his people would have turned to God they could have been helped and ultimately spared.
In an age when there are multiple billion dollar industries built up around siphoning away attention (cell phones, advertising, social media, etc..), focus is the hottest of commodities. Unaware or undisciplined, the carrot patch of our focus may daily be filled with enough rabbit holes that I am robbed of the yield I really desire and sometimes desperately need. “Yea, and I also exhort you, my brethren, that ye be watchful unto prayer continually, that ye may not be led away by the temptations of the devil, that he may not overpower you, that ye may not become his subjects at the last day: for behold, he rewardeth you no good thing” (Alma 34:39). Lehonti would definitely say so.
