Where There's a Wall, There's a Way

You guys, Book of Mormon is seriously one of my favorite classes this semester. I feel the Spirit every. single. class. The spiritual high I experience is fabulous. Enough of my gushing, although I could gush all day.

This week we talked about Samuel the Lamanite. His story always reminds me of a Mormonad I saw in an issue of the New Era. It’s the classic picture of Samuel on the wall with the people throwing stones and shooting at him, and it says “Popularity. It’s overrated. Sometimes the crowd is just plain wrong.” But popularity isn’t what I want to talk about – I really wanted to talk about Samuel. There are two things we can learn from Samuel (minimum). I’ve taken both things from Helaman 13:3 – “But behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, that he should return again and prophesy unto the people whatsoever things should come into his heart.” The first is that the Lord values His children. Samuel had already tried to teach the people, had been into the city and gotten kicked out. Then the Lord told him to go back, that He would tell Samuel what to say. That’s how precious his children are to Him; He isn’t willing to just give up on them. Samuel had a million reasons to not go back into the city, but he decided to be obedient and see if he could get someone to listen to him. That’s where the second lesson comes in: never give up. Never give up on the people you care about or what you care about. Both the people and the gospel were important to Samuel, so he went back. We joked (although there is undoubtedly some truth to this) that if Samuel hadn’t been able to get up the wall, he would have found another way in.

My challenge to you this week is to apply what Samuel taught us: remember how valuable each individual is to God and to never give up. There is always another way, it just takes some effort. Have a good week you guys :).