Mondays with Emma

Here's our weekly inspiration from Miss Emma. Love that girl!


One of my favorite lessons from this week was found in Helaman 5: 51-52 which say, “And as many as were convinced did lay down their weapons of war, and also their hatred and the tradition of their fathers. And it came to pass that they did yield up unto the Nephites the lands of their possession.” I like this because up until now, this group of people (Lamanites) had generally had a tradition of wickedness among themselves. However, once they heard the gospel they completely changed and became a righteous people. I think this is wonderful because I think sometimes we have sins we want to give up but Satan tries to tell us that there are things about us that we can’t change, we just are going to have to live with it. However, this scripture gives us encouragement, because if the Lamanites could change their entire way of life, I can change the little things that I need to change. If you are ever feeling down on yourself, just think that you are probably not doing things as bad as the Lamanites were, and they changed so we can too!


I also like the word choice in this scripture of “convinced”. When I read the word “convinced” I thought of the word “converted”, because I think part of being converted is having a belief, or being convinced, but after the Lamanites were convinced or converted, they didn’t just leave it at that. Rather, they acted upon it. Because they knew, they changed their way of life and didn’t war anymore. This applies to us because it is great if we believe the gospel is true, but we also must do something about it in order to strengthen our faith. Today in Ward Conference my Stake President shared something that I really love. He said, “Testimony is what we know and feel. Faith is what we do and become.” In conclusion, I learned two major lessons from this part of scripture. 1. I believe that we are never too far gone to receive God’s help to make us better and 2. I believe that once we are “convinced” or have a testimony, the next step is to “do” or live it. This will help us be even more useful in the hands of God.