Moroni, My Hero

Chris and I are reading in Alma 43-44 right now. Capt. Moroni is kicking some Lamanite butt and being an all around stud. He isn't fighting for power but, for their “wives, and their children, that they might preserve them from the hands of their enemies” (Alma 43:9). I have read these chapters countless times but his integrity, devotion, and courage have really struck a cord with me over the last couple of days.

Zerahemnah, the bad guy pain in the tush, was “stir[ring] up the Lamanites to anger against the Nephites; this he did that he might usurp great power over them, and also that he might gain power over the Nephites by bringing them into bondage” (Alma 43:8). Chris and I both have short fuses and these verses made me think of how often I have let myself get "stirred up" over the silliest things, namely my pride, and how that is its own kind of bondage. I read so much into some of the things Chris does or doesn't do and I am sure that 99% of the time he is clueless. I marvel that the cause that stirred the courage and determination of the Nephites to fight with their LIVES was the cause of their wives and children, yet I will let something as trivial as the garbage set me off in anger. 3 Nephi tells us (I changed "brother" to "spouse"):

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy [spouse’s] eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

“Or how wilt thou say to thy [spouse]: Let me pull the mote out of thine eye—and behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

“Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy [spouse’s] eye” (3 Ne. 14:3–5).

It is amazing I can see at all with all the "motes" I've got yet I can always find something to complain about whether out loud or in my selfish little mind.

On the Title of Liberty, Moroni outlines the things that I should be focused on.
"...In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives {or husbands}, and our children...". Amazingly, nowhere in there does it mention the garbage or putting your socks in the dirty clothes hamper. I have been letting the little, insignificant things affect the things that matter most to me in this world. President Spencer W. Kimball counseled: “Don’t just pray to marry the one you love. Instead, pray to love the one you marry” . GENIUS!

So, THANK YOU!, Capt. Moroni, for the reminder.