God, Family, Country

Many years President Benson wrote a book entitled, “God, Family, Country: Our Three Great Loyalties.”  In it he argued for more devotion to those three important aspects of our lives: to God, to our family, and to the liberties that are the foundation of our country.  He encouraged us in the book with these words, “I pray that our eyes might be single to the will of God, that we might thereby bless our families and our country, and that we shall, with increased devotion, work for less government, more individual responsibility, and, with God’s help, a better world.”  As we read the war chapters of the Book of Mormon, we see that these three principles are emphasized as the motivation for the Nephites to fight.  The most famous example is in the title of liberty from Moroni, in which he wrote, “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole” (Alma 46:12).  Like President Benson in our day, Moroni rallied his fellow Nephites with a call to be faithful to God, to their wives and children, and to the freedoms they enjoyed in their society. 

               Mormon made sure to emphasize why the Nephite were fighting and how they were so different from the Lamanites.  In Moroni’s first recorded battle (against Zarahemnah), Mormon described the efforts of the Nephites in these words: “And now the design of the Nephites was to support their lands, and their houses, and their wives, and their children, that they might preserve them from the hands of their enemies; and also that they might preserve their rights and their privileges, yea, and also their liberty, that they might worship God according to their desires” (Alma 43:9).  They were fighting for those three loyalties, to be able to worship God, to protect their wives and children, and to save their freedoms.  Unlike the Lamanites who were fighting for domination, “the Nephites were inspired by a better cause, for they were not fighting for monarchy nor power but they were fighting for their homes and their liberties, their wives and their children, and their all, yea, for their rites of worship and their church” (Alma 43:45).  When Moroni stood before Zarahemnah and boldly testified of how the Lord had preserved them, he again emphasized why they were fighting: “And now, Zerahemnah, I command you, in the name of that all-powerful God, who has strengthened our arms that we have gained power over you, by our faith, by our religion, and by our rites of worship, and by our church, and by the sacred support which we owe to our wives and our children, by that liberty which binds us to our lands and our country; yea, and also by the maintenance of the sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness; and by all that is most dear unto us” (Alma 44:5).  Moroni and the righteous Nephites were focused on their faith, their liberties, and their families. 

          Mormon clearly didn’t want us to miss this point; as he described Moroni’s preparations for war he wrote, “And thus he was preparing to support their liberty, their lands, their wives, and their children, and their peace, and that they might live unto the Lord their God, and that they might maintain that which was called by their enemies the cause of Christians” (Alma 48:10).  Again these same themes of family, faith, and freedom are present.  In Helaman’s letter to Moroni he similarly spoke of these reasons for their fighting: “And we did take courage with our small force which we had received, and were fixed with a determination to conquer our enemies, and to maintain our lands, and our possessions, and our wives, and our children, and the cause of our liberty” (Alma 58:12).  The Nephites did not fight for land or wealth or power—they fought in response to their faith and loyalty to God and family.  So perhaps as we set New Year’s resolutions, we might consider how we can increase our loyalty and devotion to these three foundations of a disciple’s life: to our God, to our loved ones, and to the freedoms that allow us to enjoy both faith and family.