"And the people were desirous that Alma should be their king, for he was beloved by his people.
But he said unto them: Behold, it is not expedient that we should have a king; for thus saith the Lord: Ye shall not esteem one flesh above another, or one man shall not think himself above another; therefore I say unto you it is not expedient that ye should have a king.
Nevertheless, if it were possible that ye could always have just men to be your kings it would be well for you to have a king.
But remember the iniquity of king Noah and his priests; and I myself was caught in a snare, and did many things which were abominable in the sight of the Lord, which caused me sore repentance."
Mosiah 23:6-9
This is a good reminder that, unless you can be sure that all your kings will be good, that kings are a bad idea. Alma speaks to the recent experience they all had with King Noah, and reminds them that he was caught in the pride trap as well, thinking that he was better than others, and that he needed to repent of that.
It's easy to fall into the trap of comparing our strengths to others' weaknesses and thinking that we are super cool... also easy to compare our weaknesses to others' strengths and think that we're slime. I don't think that God wants either one of those, or the swings between thinking that we're great and thinking that we are awful. I think, instead, that God would like us to acknowledge that we are flawed and in need of help and guidance, but that we also have great power to choose and to make a difference. If we understand that God finds value in us, and wants to help us be even better... we are glorious beings of light, as President Uchtdorf mentioned last conference, and if we work with God, we can shine as a light to others as well.
Today, let's just compare ourselves to ourselves, and work on improving that, day by day. Let's pray and work and study with God and open our hearts to him so that we can grow in his light and become, and help others become, more amazing than we can imagine. :)
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