Thursday, January 17, 2013

Poison

Alma 55:32

 32 And they were thus cautious that no poison should be administered among them; for if their wine would poison a Lamanite it would also poison a Nephite; and thus they did try all their liquors.
I remember a companion reading this to a family as a spiritual thought at the end of a dinner we had had.  I thought it was so very random, but decided to wait and hear what she had to say about the scripture.  After reading the scripture she explained that the Lamanites and Nephites were at war at this time.  Both sides had taken prisoners.  The Lamanites wanted to exchange prisoners but were unwilling to let them go after the Nephite ruler put forth some restrictions.  So they decided to go about getting the Nephite prisoners another way.  They decide to poison the Lamanite guards and get them drunk all at the same time.  Then they would sneak out their prisoners from the Lamanites.  They succeeded.  Soon the Lamanites thought they would try the same tactic on the Nephites.  But the Nephites were smart and didn't partake of the wine the Lamanites were trying to poison them with.  
After sharing an explanation of the story, my companion finished with these words.  She said that the Nephites knew the wine was bad for both sides of the war.  What are some things that are bad for all of us?  If we are ever caught saying, "Well, I would watch it but I would never let my children watch it," we probably shouldn't watch it ourselves.  If it is bad for our children, then isn't it bad for us as well.  
I thought this was so interesting and I hope to live more by this principle.  I want to do only what is good for all!    

1 comment:

merrilykaroly said...

Yes, my husband often makes that point! If it's too violent for children then why are we watching it? People seem to think that we hit a certain age and our spirits aren't affected by bad stuff anymore.