"And now there began to be a great curse upon all the land because of the iniquity of the people, in which, if a man should lay his tool or his sword upon his shelf, or upon the place whither he would keep it, behold, upon the morrow, he could not find it, so great was the curse upon the land.
Wherefore every man did cleave unto that which was his own, with his hands, and would not borrow neither would he lend; and every man kept the hilt of his sword in his right hand, in the defence of his property and his own life and of his wives and children."
Ether 14:1-2
I find it interesting here that losing things is indicative of a curse on the land, rather than forgetfulness. Although I suppose that could be part of it, but it sounds like this was a widespread issue. And I am guessing that there isn't anyone reading this that is unfamiliar with that feeling, on one level knowing that you put something in a certain place, but on another level thinking that you must be crazy because it isn't there. :) I have no idea how things like that work, other than the hint in the verse here about it happening because of the iniquity of the people, but before we jump to the conclusion that we are similarly cursed, let's remember how deep the iniquity ran with these people. This is very close to the time when they exterminated themselves because they couldn't let go of their hatred with one another. I am guessing if our land is cursed, it is still on a much lighter level since there are still a lot of us that aren't trying to kill each other.
We're told though that the Spirit helps us remember at least the things of God (John 14:26), which is interesting as well in this context, because if forgetfulness is part of the curse, it could be because they don't have the Spirit. ... In any case, most of my ideas about the curse are just speculation, but the real point of the verses beyond that is that we curse ourselves, spiritually if not in any other way, when we follow a path of iniquity. If we aren't progressing towards God we are regressing and losing parts of ourselves (Alma 12:11), until we have forgotten everything. Let's not choose that path and forget everything that we care about on a spiritual level. Especially let's not lose our connection with God, because that is what these people lost, and why they couldn't let go of their hatred. Today, let's remember and cleave unto the Lord and let go of anything that can prevent us from being filled with his love.
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