"But Aaron said unto him: If thou desirest this thing, if thou wilt bow down before God, yea, if thou wilt repent of all thy sins, and will bow down before God, and call on his name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest."
Alma 22:16
Aaron here is talking to the king of the Lamanites... and right before this, the king asks what he can do to receive "this great joy" in his life... and says that he will give up his kingdom and all he possesses in order to gain it. And in response, Aaron says this. It is interesting to me that the king thought first about his material possessions... as though those were the most important things in his life. We think first of those types of things too, sometimes. We want the job and the house and the money to buy stuff... but in the eternal view, those things are mostly worthless. The true value lies in who we are, and that is where God concentrates his effort. If we want happiness and hope in our lives, it isn't going to come through gaining this or that material possession. No matter how cool our toys are, the real happiness comes through our relationship with God. And we start and build that relationship on our knees. Talking to God every day about the things that matter to us, and apologizing to him for the things we've done that we know have hurt ourselves and other people... finding our way through those mistakes, and knowing that our relationship with God is whole... that brings hope. In terms of prioritizing, the king of the Lamanites had it exactly right... a kingdom is nothing compared to a relationship with God. God is always there, helping us every step of our lives, if we have a relationship with him which is open and honest... admitting what we have done wrong, and being sincere about improving ourselves.
Alma 22:16
Aaron here is talking to the king of the Lamanites... and right before this, the king asks what he can do to receive "this great joy" in his life... and says that he will give up his kingdom and all he possesses in order to gain it. And in response, Aaron says this. It is interesting to me that the king thought first about his material possessions... as though those were the most important things in his life. We think first of those types of things too, sometimes. We want the job and the house and the money to buy stuff... but in the eternal view, those things are mostly worthless. The true value lies in who we are, and that is where God concentrates his effort. If we want happiness and hope in our lives, it isn't going to come through gaining this or that material possession. No matter how cool our toys are, the real happiness comes through our relationship with God. And we start and build that relationship on our knees. Talking to God every day about the things that matter to us, and apologizing to him for the things we've done that we know have hurt ourselves and other people... finding our way through those mistakes, and knowing that our relationship with God is whole... that brings hope. In terms of prioritizing, the king of the Lamanites had it exactly right... a kingdom is nothing compared to a relationship with God. God is always there, helping us every step of our lives, if we have a relationship with him which is open and honest... admitting what we have done wrong, and being sincere about improving ourselves.