Helaman 5:12

So, today, I'm basically going to give a little bit of Krista's mind when reading Helaman 5:12 in the Book of Mormon.

Here's the scripture in its uninterrupted fullness:

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

Pretty good stuff, right? Now, I'm going to add in my own commentary [that'll be in green and enclosed in brackets].


"And now, my sons, [I imagine the prophet Helaman saying "my sons" endearingly and looking around at each of his sons, pleading with them to listen] remember, remember [I added the italics on that second "remember"... Obviously, he's about to say something that's pretty important not to forget, if he's repeating himself like that] that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God [see how clear he's being? He doesn't want them to have any misunderstandings], that ye must build your foundation [that they must build their foundations. If they wanted the best, they had no alternative but to build upon the best]; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you [take note of his descriptions here: "mighty," "all," "beat," etc.--that's some heavy language], it shall have no power over you [NO power. Not even a tiny bit] to drag you down [not "gently lead you by the hand"--drag you down] to the gulf of misery and endless wo [I like fun, happiness, and sparkles. And that does not seem to fall under any of those categories], because of the rock upon which ye are built [remember, that's the rock of Christ], which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall [I believe this last line is the most important in the entire verse. "[W]hereon IF men build, they CANNOT fall." So, IF they would choose to center their lives around and base their decisions off of Christ and His teachings, they'd be good to go. But first, they'd have to make that choice, and then consistently follow through with it]."

Joseph B. Wirthlin said, "Building a testimony on the foundation of a sincere, personal relationship with our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and on our faith in them, should be our highest priority" ("Spiritual Bonfires of Testimony", emphasis added).

Wait, so, that means...

Helaman's counsel was not only for his sons, but for us!

Which means you can easily edit the verse to match you exactly (this is just an example; alter it as needed).

"And now, my [friends], remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation [of sincere, personal love and faith]; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds [like that iffy movie you wanted to go see this weekend], yea, his shafts in the whirlwind [or that romance novel that romanced a liiiittle too descriptively], yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you [or that really awesome sounding karaoke night at a local, smoky, noisy, PDA-y bar], it shall have no power over you [none, zero, zilch, nada, zip--nope, not going to the theater, not reading the book, not showing off your vocal chords to the tunes of Billy Joel] to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon IF [you] build [you] CANNOT fall."

Huh. Imagine that. Something in the scriptures that applies directly to our lives.

Actually, when you think about it... ALL scripture applies to our lives. Go read a few verses--I don't care which ones--and then ask yourself, "Why is this included in here? What can I learn from it?" I mean, I've definitely come across scriptures that left me like:

But then once I've given it a little more thought (and maybe double-checked the context of the verses I was reading), I've found that it can apply to my life.

(Here's a handy hint: TONS of times in the scriptures, it all boils down to pride. Pride is bad. Don't be prideful. You don't have to make all the mistakes for yourself. That's part of WHY we have scriptures--to learn from the actions, good and bad, of others. So maybe that really random verse has something to do with pride or another undesirable attribute. Or, maybe it has to do with something positive, like self-reliance or education or gratitude.)

So, that's that. You now know a little bit of Krista's feelings on Helaman 5:12, as well as some of the scriptures' potential applications to our lives.

Here's a final thought: If all scripture relates to our lives.... Maybe we should actually search out the counsel given in them. And then FOLLOW it.

~mormon.org~

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